Harun — Name Meaning in Islam

Origin: Hebrew Aharon, carried into Arabic as Hārūn. Its meaning is genuinely disputed — the older lexicographers offer readings from "mountain" and from "bearer", and several suspect an Egyptian rather than a Semitic origin. It is honest to say the name's sense is not settled; what is settled is who bore it.

Who carried it: the Prophet Harun, brother of Musa. When Musa was sent to Pharaoh he asked for his brother by name — "appoint for me a helper from my family, Harun my brother" (Ta-Ha 20:29–30) — and the request was granted, so that the two were sent together. The Qur'an describes Harun as the more eloquent in speech, and places him with Musa in the confrontation and afterwards in the wilderness, where he restrained the people over the calf.

Spellings: Harun, Haroun, Haroon (Urdu), Harun (Turkish, identical), Harun (Indonesian), Aaron (English and French, the same name through Greek and Latin), هارون.

Pronunciation: haa-ROON, stress on the long second syllable. The opening h here is the light hāʾ, not the throat ḥāʾ.

Later use: the name is also familiar from the Abbasid caliph Harun ar-Rashid, whose court in Baghdad is the setting of much later literature.

Feminine counterpart: none in common use.