Ibrahim
A widespread surname and given name from the Arabic form of Abraham, meaning “father of many.”
The #2,290 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 19,400 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Ibrahim is the Arabic form of Abraham, the biblical patriarch's name. The Hebrew root is traditionally understood as meaning “father of many” or “father of a multitude,” and that meaning carried into Arabic usage through Islamic tradition. As a surname, it usually began as a patronymic from a male ancestor named Ibrahim.
History
The name is very common as a personal name across the Arabic-speaking world, and it also spread widely through Muslim communities in South Asia, Africa, and Southeast Asia. As a hereditary surname, it often arose from patronymic naming rather than from a fixed clan surname in the European sense. English-language historical works sometimes mention Ibrahim in connection with figures such as Ibrahim Pasha, but those references are incidental rather than evidence of the surname’s etymology.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
In many places, Ibrahim functions both as a very common given name and as a surname derived from that given name.
From the historical record
“* An old sailor once told me, almost in the same breath, that he had " sarvecl" on board the Billy-Rough-un (Bellerophon) ; and that he had seen J/usler Abi-aham Packer (Ibrahim Pacha). t Inf. Rev. J. Eastwood. XX CHANGED SURNAMES.”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom