Najar
A surname most often connected to an Arabic word for a carpenter or woodworker, though some families may have inherited it through regional or spelling variants.
The #9,821 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 93,673 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Najār is an Arabic occupational term meaning “carpenter” or “joiner,” from a root associated with woodworking. As a surname, it likely began as an inherited label for someone who worked in wood or belonged to a family known by that trade. In some cases, the same spelling can also reflect later adaptation of similar surnames in other languages, especially in Iberian and Jewish diaspora contexts.
History
The name is found among Arabic-speaking and Muslim communities, and it also appears in South Asian and Latin American settings through migration and local spelling habits. In Spanish and Portuguese records, Najar may sometimes overlap with related spellings or names influenced by Arabic or Hebrew forms. Because surnames were often reshaped as people moved between languages, the same spelling can have more than one family history.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The Arabic word behind the name is still a common everyday term for a carpenter in several Arabic-speaking countries.