Moroccan Last Name Generator

Places, lineages and trades in Arabic surnames

Many Moroccan surnames name a city or region with the ending -i. El Fassi means from Fez, Tazi from Taza, Slaoui from Salé, Marrakchi from Marrakesh, Soussi from the Souss valley and Rifi from the Rif mountains. Others point to a lineage. Idrissi refers to descent from Idris I, founder of the first Moroccan dynasty, and Alaoui is linked to the Alaouite family that has ruled Morocco since the seventeenth century. These names carry historical weight but are shared by many ordinary families.

Occupational names are common too. Haddad means smith, Najjar carpenter, Sabbagh dyer and Attar perfumer or spice seller. Names beginning with Ben, meaning son of, such as Benjelloun, Bennani and Benkirane, began as patronymics and became fixed surnames. Fixed family names became general during the twentieth century, when a civil registry was introduced under the French protectorate and later expanded by the independent state. Before that, many Moroccans were known by a given name, a father's name and a place.

Amazigh and Moroccan Jewish family names

A large share of Moroccans are Amazigh, often called Berber, and their surnames have their own shape. The prefix Ou or U means son of, and Aït means sons of or people of, so Aït Ali means the people of Ali. Amazigh names also draw on native words: Amghar means chief or elder, and Ouchen is associated with the jackal. Surnames like Akhannouch and Oufkir are recognisably Amazigh even to Moroccans who do not speak Tamazight.

Morocco was also home to one of the largest Jewish communities in the Arab world. Surnames such as Abitbol, Azoulay, Ohayon, Elbaz and Benchetrit are strongly associated with Moroccan Jews, many of whom now live in Israel, France and Canada. Some names reflect Sephardic roots in Spain, like Toledano, from Toledo. Others share Arabic or Amazigh words with Muslim neighbours: Elbaz means the falcon in Arabic. The generator includes these names with their meanings where the origin is reasonably clear.

Reading French spellings in the Moroccan last name generator

Moroccan surnames reach the Latin alphabet through French, so the spelling follows French sound rules. The letters ou stand for the sound written w or u in English, which is why Ouazzani, from the town of Ouezzane, is pronounced wazzani. The letters ch stand for sh, as in Chraibi, and the Arabic article usually appears as El rather than al-. Some families write Ben and the following name together, as in Benjelloun, while others keep them apart, as in Ben Jelloun.

Because spellings vary, every result also shows the name in Arabic script, which is how it appears on Moroccan identity cards. Use the starts with box to look for Ben or Aït names, or the ends with box set to -i for place-based names. The first name preview lets you test combinations such as Salma Benjelloun or Youssef Aït Ali. When you have a shortlist, save it, share a link or download it as a TXT file with meanings attached.