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Is there any hadith about giving meaningful or meaningless names?

I have seen that child should be given name with good meaning. On what that is based? And what about meaningless names? - Also I have seen that child should be given name with meaning.

Do not think that somebody is going to give a meaningless name to child, just I have seen some meaningless Chinese smartphone producer company names and have thought about how that would be regarded/rated from point of view of Islam, (at least if Muslim companies had meaningless names).

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  • Have you checked naming?
    – Medi1Saif ♦
    Apr 21, 2016 at 12:33
  • @Medi1Saif i have looked there only after i saw your comment, but i do not see similar question.
    – qdinar
    Apr 21, 2016 at 12:38
  • Maybe you'll find there some ahadith, i only know that there's a hadith about using names which have origin in the Name of the Prophet(Peace be upon him) like Ahmad, Mohammad, Haamid ... and names that start with abd like Abdullah etc.
    – Medi1Saif ♦
    Apr 21, 2016 at 12:40
  • Here is a helpful fatwa islamqa.info/en/7180
    – Medi1Saif ♦
    Apr 21, 2016 at 12:48
  • i had seen that, russian version. it does not have bases/proofs from hadithes about this.
    – qdinar
    Apr 21, 2016 at 12:53

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You should know giving names in Islam in first place is related to a human that means like naming a newborn or renaming a convert and for such a good name is recommended, while bad names are frowned upon.

This is what you would find covered in the Quran and Sunnah, as at the time and even a few centuries ago it was not usual to name a company, so these kinds of issues are new and in first place they would go inline with the rule saying that anything which is not explicitly said to be haram is halal.

There are recommendations for names like those of Prophets etc. Here is a quote for some names which are frowned upon.

But you won't find a meaningless name quoted.

Scholars seem to agree that among the names that are not allowed there are names of Allah describing an attribute that is special to HIM based on this hadith or naming somebody king of kings see for example here.
Here's a quote from the commentary of an-Nawawi on the last hadith from sahih Muslim:

وَاَعْلَمُ أَنَّ التَّسَمِّيَ بِهَذَا الاسم - يعني ملك الأملاك - حرام، وَكَذَلِكَ التَّسَمِّي بِأَسْمَاءِ اللَّهِ تَعَالَى الْمُخْتَصَّةِ بِهِ كَالرَّحْمَنِ وَالْقُدُّوسِ وَالْمُهَيْمِنِ وَخَالِقِ الْخَلْقِ وَنَحْوِهَا. انتهى.
--- (My own translation take it with care) ---
Be aware that naming somebody king of kings is haram, and also naming somebody with one of Allahs beautiful names which are special attributes to HIM like Ar-Rahman (the most Merciful or most Gracious), al-Qodus (the Holy one), al-Mohaymin (the most Hegemonic), Khaliq al-Khalq (Creator of creations) and so on. End of the quote!

This would also apply to companies as I could find in fatwas like this in Arabic allowing to name a company "Bismillah بسم الله" or here to work for a company named "Zombie" etc. the most prevalent view of scholars is that the name shouldn't be use to disdain Islam, Allah etc. and the kind of work is always important (halal, haram) etc. even if this fatwa quotes a fatwa of the Saudi fatwa council declaring Company names such as Bismillah, Alhamdulliah or at-Tawakul 'ala Allah as haram.

Here is a fatwa about the etiquette on naming children (English) and a fatwa (English) on names that are not allowed or frowned upon.

Here's also an helpful chapter from imam an-Nawawi's book al-Adhkar.

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