Editorial Policy

These are the rules the name pages follow. They explain why some pages say less than others.

1. A blank field beats a guess

If we cannot establish what a name means, the page says so. It does not offer a plausible-sounding meaning derived from what the name resembles. Around 2,000 entries fall into this category and they are excluded from our own browse pages and from search engines, but the pages still exist so that old links do not break.

2. Ambiguity is stated, not resolved

English spelling cannot distinguish several Urdu letters. Faiz is either فوز (success) or فيض (abundance); Zahira is either زاہرہ (radiant) or ظاہرہ (apparent). Where the spelling genuinely does not decide, the root field stays empty rather than picking one.

3. One page per name, not per spelling

عالیہ is written Aliya, Aaliya, Aaliyah, Aliyah, Aliyya and Aliyyah in English. These are one name, so they get one page, with every spelling listed on it. The page is titled with the commonest spelling; the others lead to it.

4. Unflattering meanings are reported

Some words in the original import are real Arabic or Urdu words with negative senses, and some are names of things nobody would name a child after. Where that is the case the page says so. فجور means immorality. خشم means wrath. آنکھ is the word for an eye and not a name at all. Reporting this is the point of the page.

5. Religious sensitivity

Names of God are marked as such. القابض is a divine attribute and is traditionally given to a person only with the عبد prefix, so the page notes that rather than presenting it as an ordinary given name. Names of animals connected to the Prophet, and names of figures who opposed him, are labelled with that context instead of being listed as pleasant options.

6. Numerology is labelled as convention

The lucky number, colour, day and stone shown on each page come from traditional abjad numerology applied to the name's first letter. They are a cultural convention rather than a property of the name, and every name beginning with the same letter shares them. We say this on each page rather than presenting the values as findings.

7. Machine translation is disclosed

Most Urdu meanings and descriptions on the site were machine translated from English and have not been checked by a person. Where a meaning was researched by hand, the page carries more detail — an origin, a root, and a note. See about the data for the field-by-field breakdown.

8. Corrections are welcome

We would rather be corrected than be confidently wrong at scale. Tell us the name and the correct form, with a source where you have one.