Asma — Name Meaning in Islam

Root: س-م-و (s-m-w), "to be high, to rise". Asmāʾ is read two ways by the lexicographers, and both are old. Most commonly it is the plural of ism (name) — so, literally, names. Others read it as the feminine of the elative asmā, from samā: loftier, more exalted. The two readings meet, because the grammarians of Basra derived ism itself from this root: a name is what raises a thing above anonymity. The Kufan grammarians instead traced ism to و-س-م, "to mark", and that disagreement was never settled.

From the same root: samāʾ (sky, heaven), sumuww (elevation, eminence), samiyy (namesake, one of high rank), ism (name), tasmiya (the act of naming), and the names Sami, Samiya, Sumayya and Asma itself.

Who carried it: Asma bint Abi Bakr, elder half-sister of Aisha and mother of Abdullah ibn al-Zubayr. She is remembered for carrying provisions to the Prophet ﷺ and her father during their emigration to Madinah, tearing her waist-sash in two to bind the load — which is why she is known as Dhat al-Nitaqayn, she of the two sashes. She lived to a great age.

Spellings: Asma, Asmaa, Asmah, Esma or Esmâ (Turkish), Asma (Indonesian), Asma (Urdu), Asmaa (French/Maghrebi), أسماء.

Pronunciation: AS-maa — stress on the first syllable, a long final ā closed by a hamza.

Masculine counterpart: Sami, and the elative Asmā is used rarely.