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This section includes first names of Semitic origin. The Semitic language family includes dozens of languages spoken in the Middle East, North Africa, and the Horn of Africa. These languages originated in this area and have been closely associated with the culture and history of the peoples in this region for over 8000 years.
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Browse Semitic male and female names by alphabetical order to find out the meanings of the names. Click on the first letter of the name you're looking for.
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The Semitic languages are a branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family which includes Arabic, Hebrew, Aramaic, Akkadian, and some other languages. It is not known whether Proto-Semitic, the ancestral language, originated in the Middle East, around the Nile delta, or in the Horn of Africa, but it was spoken around 6000 years ago throughout the region.
Akkadian, one of the earliest languages, split into Babylonian and Assyrian before the 1st millennium BC, during which Aramaic became dominant. The spread of Islam brought Arabic to most of the region after the 7th century, and it is now the most widely-spoken Semitic language.
There are over 70 living Semitic languages and many that have gone extinct but that have extensive written record. Nearly 300 million people speak a Semitic language. Hebrew as a spoken language went extinct around the 4th century but was revived with great success in the late 1800s. Arabic, in which the Qur'an is written, is also studied extensively by non-native speakers in the Islamic community.
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