Your Child's Name Affects His/her Life

Give Beautiful Names to Your Children
Giving a beautiful name to a child is a great responsibility and care for parents in Islam. One of the rights of the child on his father is to give him a name with a beautiful and pleasant meaning. Names have a great influence on people, and names with beautiful meanings have a positive effect as they reflect the personality. For this reason, Islam encourages avoiding names with ugly or insulting meanings, and instead choosing names whose meanings are true and express the truth.

The Prophet (SAW) recommended the name ‘Abdurrahman’ to those who wanted to name their children, because this name means ‘the servant of Allah, the Merciful’.

The Prophet ( SAW) used to change ugly and meaningless names for the sake of good and to give them a good meaning. For example, he changed the name of Abdullah bin Amr, who had the name ‘al-’As’, which means rebellion against Allah, to “Abdullah”. This emphasises that the meaning of names in Islam has an important place in one's spiritual journey and in one's relationship with one's surroundings. The believer's motto is obedience and his morality is servitude, and names that reflect these values should be preferred.

When is a newborn baby given a name?
When a child is born, shaving his hair on the 7th day, giving him a beautiful name and offering the aqiqah sacrifice are the first duties that parents should do for their children.

The Aqiqah sacrifice, which is offered as an expression of gratitude to Allah for the birth of a child, is accepted as a sunnah in Islam and it is recommended that parents sacrifice this qurban as a sign of gratitude to Allah for their child. Aqiqah sacrifice means taking refuge in Allah and asking for His mercy and protection for the child, and it is one of the stages of giving the child an identity, like the naming process.

The Name Affects The Owner

It has been said that the name affects the musammah, that is, the name given to a person affects both his character and his life. Choosing a beautiful name is not only about finding a name that is aesthetic or pleasing to the ear; it also has the power to affect the child's future, character and place in society. Ibn Melek, one of the hadith scholars, drew attention to this issue and said that it is sunnah to give a beautiful name to a child, because ugly names can sometimes attract negative events by being in accordance with fate. For example, it is said that if a person gives his child a name that means ‘Hasâr’ (loss, damage), sad events may occur in the life of the child or the family. Therefore, giving children names with bad meanings should be avoided.
A cautionary parable about naming children is narrated from Ibn al-Musayyeb. When Ibn al-Musayyeb's grandfather came to the Prophet (pbuh), the Prophet asked him his name, and when he replied ‘Hazn’ (sorrow and difficulty), the Prophet said, ‘On the contrary, your name is Sahl (ease).’ However, he did not change the name given by his father. However, he did not want to change the name given by his father. Ibn al-Musayyeb said that after this incident, sadness was never absent from their home. This parable is told as an example that names can be linked to destiny.
Therefore, giving children beautiful and meaningful names means giving them a positive start to their lives. At the same time, acts of worship, such as the Aqeeqah sacrifice, are a sign of a parent's spiritual responsibility to their child. Both of these are elements that will make the child feel valuable and special and give him/her a beautiful identity in the sight of Allah