Aziz

Aziz (Arabic: عزيز‎‎, ʿazīz, [ʕaziːz]) was originally a Northwest Semitic Phoenician/Aramaic/Hebrew/Arabic word, but is now much more commonly (but not exclusively) known as a Central Semitic Arabic male name. The feminine form of both the adjective and the given name is Aziza.

Aziz in Arabic is derived from the root ʕ-z-z with a meaning of "strong, powerful" and the adjective has acquired its meaning of "dear, darling, precious". It is a cognate of Hebrew oz meaning "might, strength, power". The Semitic word refers to the "power and glory" of deities and kings. Al-Aziz is one of the names of God in Islam, and the word is also used as a royal title born by the high nobles of Egypt, being a title borne by the Prophet Joseph in the Quranic Surah-e-Yusuf, and also by the Biblical Potiphar. In Bible, Aziz is referred to as Potiphar.

It is used in existing Semitic languages such as Arabic, Assyrian Neo Aramaic, Mandic, Hebrew, and also in non-Semitic languages like Turkish, Kurdish, Azerbaijani, Persian, Urdu, Pashtu, Dari, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Turkmen, Uzbek, Uyghur, Balochi, Bengali, Somali, Indonesian, and Malaysian.

Aziz is a common masculine given name, especially in the Muslim World but it has also continued to be used by indigenous non-Muslim peoples in the Middle East, e.g. Assyrians, Israeli Jews, and Mandeans.

Given name

• Aziz Ansari, Indian-American stand-up comedian and actor
• Aziz Azion, Ugandan R&B singer-songwriter
• Aziz Mian, Pakistani singer
• Aziz Nesin, Turkish humorist and author
• Aziz Sancar (born 1946), Turkish scientist and 2015 Nobel laureate in Chemistry
• Aziz Shavershian, Australian bodybuilder and internet personality of Kurdish descent
• Aziz Yıldırım, Turkish businessman

Surname

• Arif Aziz, Azerbaijan artist and educator
• Douglas Aziz, Assyrian Iraqi footballer
• Lisa Aziz, British television presenter and journalist
• Philip Aziz, Canadian artist of Lebanese ancestry
• Ricardo Azziz, university president
• Shaukat Aziz, Pakistani Prime Minister
• Tariq Aziz (born Mikhail Yuhanna), ethnic Assyrian former Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister under Saddam Hussein
• Tariq Aziz (bureaucrat), Pakistani Head of National Security Council of Pakistan and close-aide of Pervez Musharraf
• Tipu Aziz, Professor of neurosurgery at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford University

See also

• Aziza (equivalent feminine name)
• Abdul Aziz, Arabic theophoric name
• Azziz (disambiguation)
• Azizah