Vestiges of Arabic nomenclature in Maltese surnames

Abstract

The most tangible living remains of the Arab period in Malta lie in the vernacular. It is now universally accepted by linguists that Maltese is derived from North African dialectal (pre-Hilālian) Arabic. Unsurprisingly, some of the oldest Maltese surnames have Arabic roots, which clearly reflect Arabic naming practices. These surnames, in fact, reveal residues of names which originally, in medieval times, functioned as a kunyah, an ism, a nasab, a nisba, a laqab, or a nabaz. The present paper hence examines the etymology of several extant Maltese surnames, which have survived in Latinized forms, such as Abdilla, Buhagiar, Cassar, Farrugia, Fenech, Micallef, Mifsud, Mintoff, Said, Saliba, Sammut, Scerri, Sultana, Zammit, and Zerafa, within the parameters of Arabic nomenclature.