Arabic names and Hijri dates in translation
Two details cause more confusion in translated Arabic documents than anything else: how names are spelled, and which calendar a date uses.
How Arabic names are structured
Many Arabic documents record a person's full lineage rather than a "first, middle, last" name. A typical chain might be:
أحمد محمد علي حسن
Ahmed Mohamed Ali Hassan
given name · father's name · grandfather's name · family name
Some names include kunya (Abu… / Umm…, "father of" or "mother of"), nisba (a name showing origin, such as al-Baghdadi), or the prefix bin/ibn ("son of") and bint ("daughter of"). Women usually keep their own family name after marriage. In US forms, the "family name" field may need careful thought; your attorney can advise on that, and we'll mirror whatever spelling you use.
Why spellings vary
There is no single official system for writing Arabic names in Latin letters. Arabic has sounds English lacks, and short vowels usually aren't written, so the same name can legitimately appear as Mohammed, Muhammad, Mohamed or Mohamad. Passports from different countries follow different conventions, often influenced by French or English.
Our rule: we use the spelling on your passport (or the spelling you give us) and keep it identical across every document we translate for you. Consistency matters far more to an immigration officer than which romanization is "correct".
Hijri dates
Many documents, especially older ones and those from Saudi Arabia, use the Islamic Hijri (AH) lunar calendar. A Hijri year is about 11 days shorter than a Gregorian year, so dates don't line up with a simple formula.
In a certified translation, we translate the date as written (for example "15 Rajab 1405 AH"). If it helps the reader, we add the Gregorian equivalent in brackets as a translator's note, clearly marked so it's never confused with the original text. Because some conversion methods differ by a day, the date as written remains authoritative.
Numerals
Arabic documents may use Eastern Arabic numerals (٠١٢٣٤٥٦٧٨٩) or Western numerals (0123456789). Both are converted to Western numerals in the English translation, with extra care for ID numbers, where a single wrong digit causes real problems.
Places
Cities and governorates also have several English spellings (Jeddah/Jiddah, Baghdad, Sana'a/Sanaa). We use the spelling common in English-language official usage, or match your other documents.