Ben

Ben (Heb. and Arab., 'son'), often used in connection with the father's name to form Jewish and Arabic personal names, and consequently used, owing to the lack of family-names among the Semitic peoples, to form patronymics—thus Ali Ben Hassan = Ali, son of Hassan. The Hebrew form Ben is familiar to us from its use in Bible names—e.g. Benhadad, 'the son or worshipper of Hadad' or Adad, the chief idol of the Syrians; Benoni, 'son of my pain'; Benjamin, 'son of the right hand,' &c. Similarly, many Jews have formed with this prefix new family-names, as Benary = the son of Ari, analogous to English names in -son. The Arabs, Persians, and Turks often make the prefix into Ibn (Ebn); the Jews, under Arabic influ- ences, Aben, Aven, as in Aben Esra. The plural, Beni, is found in the names of many Arab tribes—as Beni Omayyah, 'the sons of Omayyah,' the family known in history as the Ommiades; and sometimes in the names of places—as Beni-Hassan (see BENI-ISRAEL). The corresponding word in Aramaic is Bar, as in Simon Bar-jona.