Saïd

Saïd

Saʽid (Arabic: سعيد Saʽīd), also spelled Saʽeid, Said, Saïd, Sid, Saeed, Sayeed or Sayid, is a male Arabic given name which means "blessed (in Quranic Classical Arabic), good luck, joy" or "happy, patient". The name stems from the Arabic verb sa‘ada (سَعَدَ - 'to be happy, fortunate or lucky'). The lesser uncommon form of the name Saʽid is "Suʽid (سُعِيد suʽīd)" and the feminine form of the name is Saida (Saʽidah, سَعِيدة saʽīdah) or Suida (Suʽidah, سُعِيدة suʽīdah). Saʽid is another variant from the Arabic given name Saad. The written form of the name in Turkish is Sait and in Bosnian is Seid. Said or Sid is the spelling used in most Latin languages. The Maltese surname Saïd has the same origin but has been borne by Latin Catholics for over seven centuries. Most Maltese surnames are of Italian origin, but this (with Abdilla) is one of the very few authentically Arabic given names that have survived in the islands as family names. It is a variant of the medieval Sicilian Christian surname Saido or Saito (Saidu), which was derived from the Siculo-Arabic given name Sa'īd used by both Muslims and Christians. In Sicily and Malta, this surname was sometimes Italianized as (De) Felice. The surname was established in Malta by 1419, appearing mostly as Sayd in the militia list of that year. In the 1480 militia list it is spelt mostly Said, but was later variously written Said, Sayd, Sajt, Sait in the Catholic church census of 1687. The anachronistic and undocumented claim that 'Nicolò Sayd', a grandson of Cem (1459–1496, the renegade son of Turkish Sultan Mehmet II) settled in Malta and became the ancestor of all Maltese bearing the surname Said is a fantasy inspired by the writings of historical novelists Maurice Caron and John Freely and recently promoted by amateur genealogists.Today, francophone countries use transliterations of that name. These include the names Seydoux and Seydou, which are common in Europe and West Africa, respectively.

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