Most, if not all names exist for a reason. Especially when it comes down to names of towns and cities, probably even countries. They must have some history, background or story to them. But there are names that might make us think... Where on earth did they come up with that? How did it start??

A good example would be Mutrah, where we have many odd names like "Il-3iryaana" (meaning naked) or "Geedan"...
Somewhere in Ruwi if I'm not mistaken "Nazee Moya"..

Yes believe it or not, these are all names of places! :think:

I'm wondering if anyone has any clue as to what the story is behind each name, and why it is so..
To my knowledge, "Il-3iryaana" was taken from the original "Il-3areen" which means 'Den' in english (perhaps as in a lions den)

Please share other interesting names, and any info about the naming. :)

Ive always been intrested to know the roots of names called after cities and places...
if we take it on a larger international schale...every one knows the root of the city name called ALexadria??

In Oman...its the same....
for example...They say IBRA...is after a great persian knight that was in Oman...the place named after him?? dont know if such thing true or not...

if you noticed in Local toursim and events sabla...Whnever I talk about a city in Oman...
I Try my best to find the root meaning and why it was called by such name...(NOT always succeful...) Sur is a good example....ect...
I THINK this is a very curious field...at least 2 me :)

hmmm.. lol.. I hardly ever thought of that... interesting AP... since different words have different meanings ... one way of names being changed could be the effect of outsiders.. as in... they would give a name to the green mountains for example according to how they see it... some of my friends call it the spotted mountains now... if u ask them why they'll go like just go there and u'll see what i mean... other names are being changed according to the people who visit the country in history due to their different languages... however I do not know the roots of the names u mentioned... in fact it's the first time I ever heard of them :os... don't be surprised to hear that there's a lot I don't know about my own country... it would be interesting to know where the names came from :D

Good thread AP..
well i heared that Busher- in Oman.. is called Busher becouse there were lots of killing and fighting in that place and if u notice..Bu- Shar, shur is evil.. thats the story of this area..

Good thread AP..
well i heared that Busher- in Oman.. is called Busher becouse there were lots of killing and fighting in that place and if u notice..Bu- Shar, shur is evil.. thats the story of this area..thats very intresting!
any more?

Thanks alot for all who replied :)

Well I agree with some of what you've said Tee.
Thuggy thanks for sharing that with us, I would've never even thought of such story behind the naming of Ibra :)

PB.. I'm surprised you know about it, as not many have heard of that. Everytime I would try telling my pals they think I'm fibbing.. not fun! :mmhmm:

And when I heard about the story I was also told about Khuwair, which for those that are unaware is a neighbouring city/town. I was told that the name, just as it sounds, was taken from 'khair' meaning 'good' in arabic. I was told that there was a reason behind it being called as such due to Bausher (Bu-shar in arabic meaning 'of evil'). It is quite interesting to know how good and evil are even paired as neighbouring cities/towns in Oman :)

Another rather 'meaningful' name this time, is somewhere in the southern region of Oman, 'Dhofar'. The name of the place is "Jathibiya" meaning "gravity" in arabic. This place has been named so due to the very strange unexplained gravitational abnormality. If a car was to be put in neutral (N gear) and was allowed to rest at the bottom of this long road, supposedly it would 'roll up' the inclined road and stop somewhere up the inclined road, which if you're not aware of defies all gravitational laws! :D

Sallam,

Well as far as i know, taht many places are named for strong reasons.

Some of them resons could be the people who used to live in that certain area or a tribe, then the place gets to be named by the tribe/or the people's name.

or

If a thing happend at a certain time in the past, and that thing was been told and spreaded every whereas a story, that people would knwo the place with what happend in it.......and after some time the place gets to be named with that name.


I am not that aknowledge with many of them names, but what i know is:

Al-Ghubra /الغبره is named from the origin word Ghabar/Ghubar, which means dust. There used to be dust every where in that area in the past cause it was an open space that not many structures were around plus whenever there would be some wind, the place gets covered with the dusty sand!

So with this name, the reasons behind it is because of what was happening at that time in that area.

another example of the naming on the behalf of the Tribes name is:

A Wadi somewhere between Al-DaKhiliya and Al-Batinah called Wadi Bani Hena'aa/ وادي بني هناهء . It was named after the Shiekh of the people of that tribe ,who used to locate themselves on that certain area, just by the Wadi. Then the tribes name got advanced with Al-Hinai/الهنائي

The same as وادي بني خروصand it's known with the tribe name الخروصي or وادي بني سعادةand it's known with the tribe name السعدي


And many more.:)

I hope i was in a hand of help in here :angel:

Thanks alot for sharing this info with us Solafa.. I've heard about the naming of Al-Ghubra as well, thanks for bringing it up :)

As for the other names, I would've understood why they were called so. If thats the case, we have so many Wadi bani places in Oman am I not right? :)

AP, alkhuwair isnt because of khair as I know .. Khor in arabic means a tounge of sea water towards the land, and khuwair is a small tounge or so I heared.

Snaw- in mudhaibi (Sharqiya) .. came from a name which is: سناء البرق and it was made smaller into Sanawu and then to Snaw

Al-Qurum, due to a certain kind of tree called Qurum tree which grows there (there is a protected area for this tree opposite to love street in Shati.

Intreseting topic..

Al-Seeb , refers to a guy who handle the ropes for the pearl divers.

previously it was called Dima because most wadis drain in Al-seeb sea like blood.


AP, Al-Areen is is a recent name for Al-Aryaana in Mutrah.

I wonder what does Bosher stand for?.

Now for "Nakhal" it is not because of the palm trees نخيل which grew in there (as many think), but the reason it was named "Nakhal" is because it pulls out the water from the mountains...referring back to the bubbling water العين الثوارة spring in Wilaya Nakhal which come from the inside of a mountain there (I saw it myself comming out from the bottom of the mountian hot and very pure and clear).
سميت نخل لانها تنخل الماء من الجبل
Which implies that: it filters water out from stones and dust of the mountain to deliver to you the pure water of the bubbling spring of عين الثوارة.

Thanks everyone for sharing such informative replies

AP - I am familiar with Khor, however it never occured to me that Khuwair could be named in relation to that :) Thanks

Fahad - Thanks for adding the info about Al-Aryaana, and btw abotu Bausher, it has been mentioned in the previous couple of posts :)

Haroundb - Thanks for the detailed information about the naming of Nakhal, which I'm sure now removes all peculiarity about the naming of that place :)

sallam,

any one knows more, to share with us:)

I just had a quick browse through the replies and they were all interesting indeed.. it would be great if we could have more participations... I'm sure some members out there are quite knowledgable with these things! :rolleyes:

Al swuaiq -the name came from the number of souqs in al Wilaya

Honestly.. that would've been the last thing to cross my mind if I were to think of it.. interesting :)

Waiting for moreeee! :)

Al swuaiq -the name came from the number of souqs in al Wilaya


It seems to me it's 'ta9'3eer' souq. meaning it's the small souq.

It seems to me it's 'ta9'3eer' souq. meaning it's the small souq.



yes, word alwuaiq is ta93eer of souq.

hello,


Well i shalla Add:


Al-asima---> which is the Capital and the central Region

Al-sharqyia---> As the East Region

Al-Janubia---> As the South Region

Al-Wasta---> As the Middle Region

Al-dhahira---> i am assuming it to be the Visible Region [ does any one know why is it called in that name?]

Al-Batinah---> I am assuming as the Invisible Region [ does any one know why is it called in that name?]