Avicenna  ·  Ibn Sina

Avicenna and Ibn Sina

Avicenna is the Latinised name Europe gave to Ibn Sina, written ابْن سِينَا. One man, two reputations, and most English writing only knows the Latin half.

English
Avicenna
Arabic
ابْن سِينَا
Read as
Ibn Sina
Status
Physician and philosopher, died 1037
Where the English comes from
Latinisation of Ibn Sina by way of the Hebrew Aven Sina, used by medieval European translators.
What the Arabic carries
Ibn Sina, son of Sina; known in Arabic as al-Shaykh al-Rais, the Chief Master.
Full name page
Ibn Sina on AsrNaam

Is Avicenna the same as Ibn Sina? Yes. Avicenna is the Latinised form and Ibn Sina the Arabic form of one name. Avicenna is not a name anyone was given: it is what medieval Latin Europe made of Ibn Sina.

Who Ibn Sina was

Avicenna is not a name anyone was ever given. It is what medieval Latin Europe made of Ibn Sina, the Persian physician and philosopher who died in 1037, and it stuck so hard that most English-language medicine remembers the Latin and not the Arabic.

His Canon of Medicine, al-Qanun fi al-Tibb, was a standard teaching text in European universities into the seventeenth century, which is roughly six hundred years of continuous use. His metaphysics, particularly the distinction between essence and existence, shaped Aquinas and, through him, a great deal of what Europe went on to think.

Sina is used as a given name in Iran and Turkey. Avicenna is not a given name in any tradition, and this page exists to connect the two halves of one man's reputation.

Using the name

The full entry for Ibn Sina carries the Arabic spelling, the Urdu, the pronunciation, the lucky number and the letter-by-letter Ilm ul Huroof reading, along with every romanisation the name is written in.

Open the full Ibn Sina page →

Questions about Avicenna and Ibn Sina

Is Avicenna the same name as Ibn Sina?
Avicenna is the Latinised form and Ibn Sina is the Arabic form of the same name. They refer to the same man.
Is Avicenna the same person as Ibn Sina?
Yes. Avicenna is the Latinised name European scholars gave to Ibn Sina.
Is Avicenna used as a first name?
No. It is a Latinisation, not a name given to children. Sina is used as a given name in Iran and Turkey.
Can a Muslim family use the name Ibn Sina?
Ibn Sina is a family name rather than a given name, so it is not usually given to a child. Its page on AsrNaam sets out the man and the meaning of the name.

Other names the two traditions share

Every one of these is one figure under two names.

Jesus and IsaMoses and MusaMary and MaryamAbraham and IbrahimJoseph and YusufDavid and DawudSolomon and SulaymanNoah and NuhJohn and YahyaJacob and YaqubJonah and YunusJob and AyyubAaron and HarunIsaac and Ishaq

Or start from the full list of Biblical names in Islam.