Afghan Muslim Names: Pashto and Dari Names and Their Meanings

Updated October 2026 · Modern Muslim Names

Afghan names come from three sources at once. Some are native Pashto words such as Spogmai (moon), Zmaray (lion) and Breshna (lightning). Others are Dari, the Afghan form of Persian, with names like Freshta, Jawid and Parwana. The third group is Arabic, and much of it is religious: Afghan families are especially fond of -ullah compounds such as Faridullah, Noorullah and Shafiqullah. This guide explains each layer, shows how the same name changes between Kabul, Kandahar, Tehran and Peshawar, and lists the meanings of more than a hundred names Afghan Muslim families actually use.

Three languages in one naming tradition

Afghanistan has two official languages. Pashto is the language of the Pashtuns, who live across southern and eastern Afghanistan and over the border in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, Pakistan. Dari is the Persian spoken in Kabul, Herat, Mazar-i-Sharif and much of the north and west. Most Afghans are Muslim, so Arabic sits on top of both languages through the Quran, prayer and religious learning. One family can easily have a son called Zalmay (Pashto), a daughter called Farkhunda (Persian) and a grandfather called Abdul-Qayyum (Arabic). Nobody sees that as a mix of styles. It is simply how Afghan naming works.

For a wider overview of names in the country, see our Afghanistan Muslim names hub. Afghan naming also overlaps heavily with the Pashtun naming of Pakistan, the Persian naming of Iran and the Tajik and Uzbek naming of Central Asia.

Native Pashto names

Pashto names are the most distinctly Afghan part of the tradition. Most of them are ordinary Pashto words, not Arabic or Persian, chosen for a beautiful or admirable meaning. They often sound unfamiliar to Arabic or Urdu speakers because Pashto has sounds of its own. Two letters matter most:

• ږ is pronounced roughly zh in southern (Kandahari) speech and g in northern and eastern speech. That is why one name for "moon" appears as Spozhmai, Spozhmay, Spogmai and Spogmay, and why the name for a gentle breeze is written Wazhma, Wazhmah, Wagma and Wajma. They are the same name in different spellings, not different names.
• ښ is pronounced roughly sh in the south and kh in the north. It appears in Zarlasht and Breshna, so you may also hear "Zarlakht" or "Brekhna" from northern speakers.

Pashto also allows consonant clusters at the start of a word that English does not, such as the zm- of Zmarai and the sp- of Spogmai. Many feminine Pashto names end in -ai, -a or -ay. Many masculine ones end in -ay or -alai, as in Zalmay, Baryalai, Nangyalai and Zmarialai.

Pashto girls' names

Pashto girls' names lean towards the sky and nature. Spogmai is the moon, Storay (also Storai) is a star, and Palwasha is a ray of light, often described as moonlight. Breshna means lightning. Wazhma is a soft breeze, Zarghuna means green and flourishing, Hosai is a deer or gazelle and Orzala is usually explained as a flame or spark. Other names describe a person. Muska means "smile" and is one of the best-loved native names in Afghanistan. Hila means hope, and Torpekai means "the one with black locks", an image of beauty from Pashto folk song.

A group of names is built on zar, gold: Zarlasht (usually explained as "golden" or "golden stem"), Zarmina and, by many explanations, Zarghoona. The exact formation of some of these is not well documented, so treat a single fixed translation with some caution.

Several names honour women of Afghan history and legend. Malalai recalls Malalai of Maiwand, who rallied Afghan fighters at the Battle of Maiwand in 1880; Malala Yousafzai was named after her. Zarghuna recalls Zarghuna Ana, mother of Ahmad Shah Durrani, and Nazo recalls the poet Nazo Tokhi (Nazo Ana), grandmother of Mirwais Hotak. Durkhanai is the heroine of the Pashto folk romance Adam Khan and Durkhanai. Pashtana simply means "Pashtun woman" and expresses pride in Pashtun identity.

Lailuma is a special case. It is used by both Pashto and Dari speakers and is generally taken as an Afghan elaboration of Laila (night), but the origin of its ending is not well documented. Gulalai builds on gul, flower, with an affectionate Pashto ending.

Pashto boys' names

Pashto boys' names praise courage, youth and honour. Zmaray (also Zmarai) means lion, and Zmarialai means lion-hearted. Zalmay means a young man and carries a sense of vigour and readiness. Atal means hero or champion. It has no connection to the Hindi word atal, "immovable". Baryalai means victorious, and Wadan means prosperous or flourishing, as a thriving land is. Nangyalai comes from nang, honour, one of the central values of Pashtunwali, the Pashtun code of conduct. Aimal is usually explained as "hope" or "aspiration". It is the name of Aimal Khan Mohmand, a seventeenth-century Pashtun leader who rose against the Mughals.

Some favourite Pashtun boys' names are not purely Pashto but have deep Pashtun associations. Mirwais joins mir, chief (from Arabic amir), with Wais, the Afghan form of Uways. Uways al-Qarani was the early Yemeni Muslim whom the Prophet ﷺ praised although the two never met. Mirwais Hotak of Kandahar founded the Hotak dynasty in the early eighteenth century. Khushal is Persian for "happy, prosperous", but Pashtuns choose it to honour Khushal Khan Khattak, the warrior-poet regarded as the national poet of Pashto. Gulsher pairs gul (flower) and sher (lion), gentleness alongside courage.

Dari and Persian names

Dari and Iranian Persian share most of their vocabulary, so a large share of Afghan names also exist in Iran. The pronunciation and spelling differ, though, and those differences explain most of the variants you will see.

• Final -eh becomes -a. Iranian Persian pronounces the final ه as -eh. Afghans say -a. So Iranian Fereshteh is Afghan Freshta or Fereshta, Parvaneh is Parwana, Tahmineh is Tahmina, Mahbubeh is Mahbooba and Fahimeh is Fahima.
• v becomes w. Afghan Dari pronounces و closer to w, so Iranian Navid and Javid become Afghan Nawid and Jawid, and Parviz appears as Perwez.
• Old vowels survive. Dari keeps the old long e and o sounds that Iranian Persian merged into i and u. That is why Afghans and South Asians say Sher (lion) where Iranians say "shir", and why the Afghan form Freshta sounds different from the Tehran form.
• Vowels drop. Everyday speech shortens the first vowel, as in Freshta from fereshteh and Shagofa beside Iranian Shokufeh (blossom).

None of these spellings is more correct than another. They show where a family comes from. Our Iranian names hub covers the Tehran forms in more detail.

Dari girls' names

Afghan Dari girls' names often use flowers, light and feeling. Flower names include Nilofar (water lily), Nargis (narcissus), Banafsha (violet), Shagofa (blossom) and Gulpari (flower fairy). Light and the sky appear in Mahtab (moonlight), Sitara (star), Forough (radiance) and Shabnam (dew). Other names describe hopes and qualities: Tamana (wish, in the single-n spelling usual in Afghanistan), Arezo (wish, longing), Farkhunda (auspicious), Zeba (beautiful), Rangina (colourful) and Khatera (a cherished memory). Freshta (angel) is one of the most common girls' names in the country, and Parwana (butterfly) is close behind in familiarity.

Dari boys' names and the Shahnameh

Many Persian boys' names in Afghanistan come from Ferdowsi's Shahnameh, the Persian epic. Part of the epic is set in Afghan lands. The hero Rustam marries Tahmina, princess of Samangan in today's northern Afghanistan, and their son is Sohrab. Other epic names in use include Jamshid, Faridun, Bijan and Farhad. Everyday Dari boys' names include Jawid (eternal), Nawid (good news), Omid (hope), Roshan (bright), Dalir (brave), Shirzad (lion-born) and Zaryab (golden). Royal and Mughal-era names are also common: Babur, Humayun, Taimoor and Kamran. Aryan, Ario and Aria became popular in the twentieth century and are often linked with Ariana, an old name for the region.

A few Persian names come from figures of pre-Islamic religion. Some families avoid those, while others treat them simply as literary names. If that matters to you, read the individual entries before you decide.

Arabic names in Afghan use

Arabic supplies the religious core of Afghan naming. Most boys carry an Arabic name somewhere in their full name, even when they are known day to day by a Pashto or Persian one. Our Quranic names page covers names taken directly from the Quran.

The -ullah compounds

The most recognisably Afghan pattern is a noun or adjective joined to Allah, written as one word ending in -ullah. The result reads as "the [quality] of God" or "the [quality] one of God". Many of these are not classical Arabic names, but they are standard among Pashtuns and other Afghans and on the Pakistani side of the border:

• Faridullah, "unique one of God", from farid, unique.
• Noorullah, "light of God", and its near-synonym Ziaullah.
• Shafiqullah, "compassionate one of God", from shafiq.
• Rahmatullah (mercy of God), Habibullah (beloved of God) and Amanullah (protection of God). Habibullah and Amanullah were also the names of Afghan rulers in the early twentieth century.
• Sebghatullah (often spelled Sibghatullah), taken directly from the Quranic phrase sibghat Allah, "the dye of God", in Surah al-Baqarah 2:138. Commentators explain the phrase as the religion God gives to people.
• Asadullah (lion of God), Saifullah (sword of God), Hikmatullah (wisdom of God), Qudratullah (power of God) and Inayatullah (care of God).

In everyday speech these long names are usually shortened. A boy registered as Rahmatullah may be called simply "Rahmat", with the affectionate jan added in the family. Spellings vary too: Najibullah and Najeebullah are the same name, as are Obaidullah and Ubaidullah.

Abdul- names, -uddin names and Ghulam

The classical Islamic pattern of Abd (servant) plus one of the names of God is very common in Afghanistan, where it is usually written "Abdul-": Abdul-Qayyum, Abdul-Wakil, Abdul-Hai, Abdul-Ghafur, Abdul-Basir and Abdulhaq. Scholars generally advise that these names should not be shortened to the divine name alone, so that a man called Abdul-Qayyum is not addressed simply as "Qayyum". Names ending in -uddin, "of the faith", are also widespread, such as Ziauddin. Afghanistan has a distinctive hybrid in Gulbuddin, where the Persian gul (flower) takes the place of the usual Arabic first element.

Ghulam literally means "boy" or "servant" and is almost never used alone. It begins compounds of devotion such as Ghulam Muhammad or Ghulam Rasul. Scholars generally prefer these compounds to refer to the Prophet ﷺ or the righteous. Hazrat, an Arabic-derived title of honour, is given as a personal name in Afghanistan, often in compounds such as Hazrat Gul.

Arabic girls' names in Afghan use include Mursal, which in Afghanistan is given mostly to girls, along with Shukria, Nooria, Nazifa, Marzia, Masuda and Roya. These often take Persian-style spellings: Mahbooba rather than Mahbuba, and Masooda beside Masouda.

Naming customs and full names

As in other Muslim communities, many Afghan families recite the call to prayer in the newborn's ear and announce the name in the first days after birth. A grandparent, an elder or a respected religious figure is sometimes asked to choose it. In Dari-speaking families a small gathering on the sixth night after the birth, called shab-e shash, is a traditional occasion for this, although practice varies by region and family.

Until recently many Afghans used only a single given name. They were identified further by their father's name, their tribe or their home district. Modern surnames often reflect these older identifiers. Pashtun tribal names end in -zai ("descendants of"), as in Popalzai or Ahmadzai. Place names give surnames such as Kabuli, Herawi and Panjshiri. Other surnames are chosen words: the painter Abdul Ghafoor Breshna made Breshna familiar as a family name. Honorifics such as Khan and Aqa are added for respect and can turn into part of the name. Affectionate additions such as jan and gul are used the same way.

For more boys' names across every origin, browse our A–Z boys' list.

Frequently asked questions

Are Pashto names like Zalmay or Spogmai Islamic names?

They are not Arabic and do not come from the Quran, but they are names that Muslim Pashtun families have used for generations. In Islam, a name is acceptable when its meaning is good and it does not imply something forbidden. Names such as Spogmai (moon), Zalmay (young man) and Muska (smile) meet that standard. Many families pair a native name with an Arabic one.

What does Lailuma mean?

Lailuma is generally linked to Laila, "night", which in poetry suggests dark-haired beauty. The exact formation of the ending is not well documented. It is used mainly in Afghanistan by both Pashto and Dari speakers.

Why do so many Afghan names end in -ullah?

Joining a virtue to the name of God, as in Noorullah or Shafiqullah, is a long-standing preference among Pashtuns and other Afghans. It makes a name a statement of devotion. Many of these compounds are not classical Arabic names. They are a regional style shared with Pakistan's Pashtun areas.

What is the difference between Wazhma, Wagma and Wajma?

They are one Pashto name, وږمه, meaning a gentle breeze. The letter ږ is said zh in the south and g in the east, which gives Wazhma and Wagma. Wajma is a further spelling of the same sound.

Is Freshta the same name as Fereshteh?

Yes. Freshta is the Afghan pronunciation of Persian Fereshteh, "angel". It drops the first vowel and ends in -a instead of -eh, and it is one of the most common girls' names in Afghanistan.

What does Mirwais mean?

Mirwais combines mir, chief or noble, with Wais, the Afghan form of Uways, recalling Uways al-Qarani. The name is strongly associated with Mirwais Hotak, the eighteenth-century leader from Kandahar.