Iman — Name Meaning in Islam

Root: أ-م-ن (ʾ-m-n), "to be safe, to trust". Īmān is the verbal noun of the fourth form āmana: faith, belief — but the root's first sense is safety, so to believe is, in the language itself, to place oneself in security with someone you trust.

From the same root: amn (safety), amān (protection given), amāna (a trust placed in someone's hands), amīn (trustworthy — the title Makkah gave the Prophet ﷺ before revelation), muʾmin (believer), āmīn said after supplication, and al-Muʾmin, one of the ninety-nine names of Allah — the Giver of security.

In use: the tradition treats īmān as one of three levels named together — islām, the outward practice; īmān, the inward assent; and iḥsān, worshipping as though you see Him. The name carries the middle of these, the part that lives where no one else can see it.

Spellings: Iman, Eman, Imaan, Imane (French/Maghrebi), İman (Turkish, where the word is everyday but the name is uncommon), Iman (Indonesian), Emaan (Urdu), إيمان.

Pronunciation: ee-MAAN, both vowels long, stress on the second. The opening is a hamza with a long ī, not the ʿayn of Iman's frequent neighbour, ʿImrān.

Note: Iman is not related to the English "Imam" (إمام, from a different root meaning to lead).

Masculine counterpart: Mu'min, Amin.