Significance of Names in Hassaniya Culture: An Anthropological and Linguistic Approach

This study examines the meanings and connotations of names in Hassaniya culture, viewing them as a semiotic system that reflects worldviews and social values. The distinctiveness of Hassaniya anthroponymy lies in its predominantly verbal character, whereby names function as prayers and expressions of wishes, while also preserving the memory of the moment of birth and its social context. The study aims to explore the syntactic and semantic structures of Hassaniya names and their social functions within a comparative framework encompassing Arab and Islamic naming systems. It adopts a descriptive-analytical approach, drawing on selected tools and concepts from linguistic anthropology. The study concludes that a Hassaniya name is not merely a marker of identity but rather a condensed text imbued with religious, social, and psychological dimensions. These dimensions reflect the depth of the Hassaniya community’s cultural experience and reveal a distinctive model of naming practices within the Arab-Islamic cultural sphere.