Ansara
I came across this surname, pronounced an-sarah, and I thought it was really cool. Do you know anything about it? Thanks!
Replies
It looks Arabic and connected to the word ansar, 'helpers'. Ansari is a surname among Muslims identifying someone who claims an ancestry among the early converts to Islam, those who gave aid to the founder of the faith when he was being persecuted.
The singular form of the word is nasr, also found as a male given name. The structure of the Arabic language allows words with similar or variant meanings to be formed from a single base, in this case the letters N.S.R., always in the same order. So Ansara, if Arabic in origin, will mean something like 'helper', 'helping', 'helpful', etc.
The singular form of the word is nasr, also found as a male given name. The structure of the Arabic language allows words with similar or variant meanings to be formed from a single base, in this case the letters N.S.R., always in the same order. So Ansara, if Arabic in origin, will mean something like 'helper', 'helping', 'helpful', etc.
Thanks, that's really cool.