A couple of years ago, I renewed my passport just before getting a visa to go to the UK for a family visit. I’ve always had a problem with my passport because they always spell my name wrong.. or rather differently to what I write it.
So I decided to ‘correct’ the English spelling of my name to make life more easier for me when buying airline tickets or the like.
After filling out the appropriate form at the Directorate of Immigration and Passports and correcting the English spelling of my name from Yaqoob to Yacoub, I handed the form with my old passport to the cashier. I asked him if it was OK to change the English spelling of my name in my new passport and he answered that since you are renewing it you can change the English one not the Arabic one. I replied even though يعقوب sounds like an old guy who lives and sleeps in a gahwa, but it suits me just fine.
A week passed by and I went to collect my spanking new passport and straight away I opened to see if they changed the spelling..
Name: Yaqoob Salman Mohamed Al-Slais
Nope. The government doesn’t like my spelling..
In honesty, I didn’t mind that much.. My name has been bastardized for most of my 23 tender years and here’s a list just to give to an idea:
- Yaqoob
- Yaqub
- Yacub
- Yakob
- Yakoob
- Yakoub
- Yocoup (this was on my university ID card for three years and still recieve alumni letters from the uni under this name)
- Yacup
- Yacoob
- Yakup
- Yagoob (but this one is acceptable hence the name of this blog is ~Yagoob’s Dome~)
- Yayoob
- Yaboob (don’t even start!)
- Yocoob
- Yocoub
Phew! Even Shakespeare didn’t spell his name that many ways!
One of the cuter renditions of my name is يقعوب or Yig’oob (I know it doesn’t look much different than how others have spelled it but it sounds as if my name was said backwards in a sense) which was used by my cousin’s kids to the point that their mother was going to name her last child Yacoub but as always the dad interferes and changes it to ‘Nasser’
Now, I don’t want you all think that I don’t like my name, I do and do a lot!
It’s unique, not a lot of people are called Yacoub and it’s sounds cool, even the fact that Eygptians can’t pronounce my name properly and call me Ya’oob يعءوب
I find it strange how people can change their first name, it feels like you’ve dumped a part of your personality and history. I have a friend who recently changed his first name apparently for ‘political and sectarian reasons’ and to make himself more ‘hireable’ and I find it very sad..
What’s in a name anyway?
ya3qoube
you’re going to love this sitcom: about an arab in america, he cant get any job, gets a hard time everywhere etc, then changes his name to something western. its ridiculously funny:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=cCGFkigPQSg
Surprised “Jacob” was not an alternative spelling when you were abroad
“I find it strange how people can change their first name” i think i know who u r talking about my friend .. anyway, u have a unique name .. “Yagi” this is how i name u in my phone contact
Yaqoob/Yaqub/Yacub/Yakob…etc – please email me! I don’t have your address, thought I did, and I can’t find it on this site. Thanks…
@ammaro: Haha that was pretty cool actually, thanks for sharing that but I’m a bit proud and wouldn’t change my name for a job
@June: I’m sorry to say that I despise the name ‘Jacob’ and ‘Jake’ is even worse! I don’t know why though, maybe because my perception of Jacob or Jake are blonde rugged jocks, where I’m quite the opposite!
@Ali: I know you know who is the guy that everybody else doesn’t know. Dude, speaking of phone numbers give me your new number laaa!
@bint battuta: I’ve sent you an email, cheers
I think Jacob suits you best!
لا حوووووووول
Fine, call me that next time we see you
we used to call one of the guys who worked with us ja3goob
Hey Yagoob, I wanted to check in on your blog and was glad to see lots of recent entries! Anyway, this business of the never-having-a-consistent-English-version-of-one’s-name thing as absolutely got to stop! I remember it driving me crazy trying to record students’ work with their first and last names often written differently with my own class list of over 100 names. Agh! I imagine it could drive you nuts too. (Not that I’ve hardly ever had my last name spelled or pronounced correctly by my fellow countrymen, but whatever. That might be another story.)
@ammaro: See, nobody can call a yagoob yagoob everyone has to change it to something more interesting
@Russell: Thanks for passing by my friend! This blogging thing suits me, it’s a good way to express myself! So how are things in Mexico or wherever you are at the moment?? I remember seeing you once crossing out names and writing down their spellings lol, but you would expect that from English teachers being picky with how they spell their names!
what about Kobi??????
shhhhhh…
Koubi is only for family and friends, I don’t want anonymous internet people knowing me as Koubi
ya3goob ana il 9ara7a i like ur name, its classic (not as in old and mal awal) i think ina fe sophistication (la this time maga3da atefalsaf)
but what i really REALLY (underline it with a millions red lines) would love to see is ur reaction when someone calls u yaboob LOL
@desert bloom: It was in a seminar during my studies in the UK and the tutor handed out a timetable for a presentation we had to do and I noticed that every person who recieved the timetable giggled and looked my way until I saw my name as yaboob.
By that time I got used to my many different spellings
my wife and i are debating on the spelling of my name. I gave up once my name was mispelt on my passport. The importance has heightened now that my future son or daughter will have my name. So, the question is what is the correct spelling? I thought it was ‘yaqub’ but now i see ‘yacoub’ being used.
Many Arabic names can have some variations in English because English has some different vowel combinations that sound relatively the same but our name ‘يعقوب’ is extremely difficult!
The closing true spelling of its pronounciation I’ve reached to is Ya’goub but it looks horrible in English though
The search continues..!
I couldn’t understand some parts of this article s in a name?, but I guess I just need to check some more resources regarding this, because it sounds interesting.