Islam
A surname adopted from the religious term Islam, originally meaning “submission” or “surrender” to God in Arabic.
The #3,354 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 28,936 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The surname comes from Arabic islām, the name of the Islamic faith and a word built on the Arabic root s-l-m, which carries the sense of peace, safety, and surrender. In literal terms, it means “submission” or “surrender” to God. As a family name, it is generally understood as an adoption of a religious term rather than a description in the older European occupational or locational sense.
History
As a surname, Islam is found especially among Muslim families in South Asia and other parts of the Islamic world, where religiously meaningful names are common in family naming traditions. The historical excerpts provided mention the word only incidentally, not as a surname entry, so they do not add much about its surname history. In modern usage, it is a common surname in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and diaspora communities.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
In Arabic, the word shares a root with salām, meaning “peace,” which is why related names and greetings often carry that same semantic field.
From the historical record
“Mousa (Moses), Daoud (David), Isa (Jesus), - Ma- homet, Mahammitt, Mehmet, Mammet, - Alia, Islam, Coran, Koran, Kuran, Sura, Suras, Hegra (Hegira?), Borak, *Thls may be the French for Dmsos.”
— A Grammar of American Surnames