Hamza

Hamza — حمزة — is Arabic for lion, and belonged to Hamza ibn Abd al-Muttalib, uncle of the Prophet Muhammad, a celebrated warrior killed at the Battle of Uhud and remembered in Islamic tradition as the Lion of God. The name carries that courageous cast across the Arab world, Turkey, the Balkans, and South Asia, where it has stayed perennially popular. In Britain and France it climbed noticeably through the 2000s and 2010s with Muslim families of North African and Levantine heritage. Two crisp syllables, a small catch on the emphatic h, a clean close. Hamza feels brave and uncomplicated — a name that does not apologize.