What is in a Name? Impact of the Variations in Names on Scholarly Work

“What is in a name? That which we call a rose. By any other name would smell as sweet.” — William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

Introduction

William Shakespeare could have been right today as in his days if the thing in question could be seen, held, or smelled.[1] However, the story is completely different when almost everything is digitized for electronic communication, storage, and retrieval. It is particularly relevant when names, words, and phrases are structured and spelled differently as they get translated from other languages for use into Latin alphabetic, the main form used in international circles.

This editorial is far from romantic or literal. As an editor of two journals whose main constituencies are based in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), I made a few observations on the implications of variations in Arabic names when used in scholarly publishing, indexation, and bibliometric work.

Names of Individuals

All biomedical submissions for publications must have the full name, affiliation, and contact details. The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors recommends using a clear and consistent first name, middle name or initial (optional), and a surname or last name usually corresponding to the family name.[2] There are a couple of challenges raised by the Arabic names. The first problem is the possible variations in spelling. This can be resolved by adopting a correct spelling the first time a name is translated, for example, when issuing a passport or entering a medical register. Second, the Arabic equivalent to definite articles “the” pronounced as Al that comes as part of the surname in the Arabian Gulf causes frequent problems. Some authors write these in capital letters with a space before the actual surname (AL Naser), opening the possibility of “AL” being taken as the middle initial. The suggested solution here provides three options: (1) to delete “Al” completely (Naser), (2) to hyphenate it with the surname (Al-Saleh), or (3) incorporate it into the actual surname (Alnaser). The third problem is with surnames that have more than one component. This problem should be resolved using both names joined by a hyphen (e.g., Hassan-Beck).[3] The last problem stems from carelessness in populating the authors' names by transposing the first and last names or wrongly using the first or middle name as the surname.[4]

There are other curiosities rather than problems that are worth mentioning. For instance, there is a consistent difference in the spelling of Arabic names when translated into English (in Egypt, Sudan, Libya, Iraq, Jordan, Palestine, and the Gulf) versus into French (in Syria, Lebanon, and the Maghreb) reminiscent from the colonial past (e.g., Bashar and Hesham vs. Bachar and Hecham). Also, names in the Maghreb tend to be written as pronounced in the local dialect rather than standard Arabic in other Arab countries (e.g., Ines in Tunisia vs. Inas in Egypt). Also, in the Arabic culture the names are structured with the middle name being automatically the father's name. However, it sounds a bit inappropriate for a female to have a male name as her second name. To maintain consistency, perhaps, Arab authors should avoid a full middle name for both men and women.

Names of Institutions

Most of the research and publications are produced by physicians whose alliance with universities is loosely defined on an adjunct or honorary basis. A limited number of institutions give guidance on how to indicate the affiliation. For many medical schools' the name “Faculty of Medicine” is back-translated into English as “Faculty of Human Medicine.” Also, within these institutions, the academic department of medicine is widely translated as the department of medicine or the department of internal medicine. Although under these departments, most divisions are self-proclaimed as divisions, departments, and even units with no consistency. These lead to a large amount of confusion when conducting bibliometric analysis and when the volume of research productivity ranks institutions. This may lose recognition as many of these self-assigned affiliations end up in the “unidentified” group, for instance, in Scopus. On one occasion, “Faculty of Medicine” was found as the affiliation in Scopus. To resolve this, corporate and academic secretaries should circulate the exact wording of how authors should express their affiliations. For example, “Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tripoli, Tripoli, Libya” consistently rather than using various names: Medical Department, College of Medicine, TripoliUniversity, etc. Anecdotally, an increasing number of institutions in Saudi Arabia are guiding staff on unified phrasing for their affiliations.

Names of Medical Conditions

Similarly, many of the names that originate in Arabic can be translated phonetically based on different local dialects. The presence of several versions for the same word may lead to confusion and, even worse, omission when conducting a literature search. The classic example is “Ramadan fasting,” which is spelled in three versions at least (Ramadan fasting, Ramadhanfasting, Ramazan fasting), appearing on 966, 4, and 2 episodes, respectively, in the title-abstract fields on January 21, 2025. In the same context, the words iftar and sohour from Arabic for the main two meals during Ramadan suffer a similar fate. Resistance to change has been demonstrated in relationship to lagging in adopting the nomenclature of type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes instead of type I diabetes and type II diabetes.[5] The solution hinges on the self-discipline of researchers and authors, who must join the majority and editors who adhere to strict house rules and copyediting practices. Beyond academia wrong names may have implications on clinical practice. For instance, lymph nodes are still translated into Arabic using their obsolete name “lymph glands” resulting in many patients with cervical lymphadenopathy ending up in endocrine clinics.

Conclusion

The variations in names of people, medical conditions, and structure of institutional affiliations have implications for scholarly publishing, indexation, and bibliographic work. In the age of digitization, adhering to consistency and uniformity in names and style is critical to allow the correct identification, storage, and retrieval of the correct information readily.

Conflict of Interest

None declared.

Compliance with Ethical Principles

No ethical approval is required.

Financial Support and Sponsorship

None.

• References

• 1 Garza-Mercado R. Between the rose and the shoulders of giants. Med Univ 2014; 16 (63) 90-95
• 2 ICMJE. Recommendations for the conduct, reporting, editing, and publication of scholarly work in medical journals. Updated January 2025. Accessed March 13, 2025 at https://icmje.org/recommendations/browse/
• 3 Hassan-Beck R, Hafidh K, Badi A. et al. Ramadan fasting in health and disease in 2021: a narrative review. Ibnosina J Med Biomed Sci 2022; 14: 50-67
• 4 Haifa Elhadi A, Faiza H. Reasons for admission of individual with diabetes to the Tripoli Medical Center in 2015. Diabetes Metab Syndr 2019; 13 (04) 2571-2578
• 5 Aldasouqi SA, Alzahrani AS. Terminology in diabetes; an example of resistance to change. Saudi Med J 2004; 25 (09) 1289-1291

Publication History

Article published online:
12 April 2025