John  ·  Yahya

John in Islam

John is Yahya in Arabic, written يَحْيَى. The two names belong to the same person, and the two traditions tell his story differently enough to be worth reading side by side.

English
John
Arabic
يَحْيَى
Read as
Yahya
Status
Prophet in Islam
Where the English comes from
Hebrew Yochanan, God is gracious, reaching English through Latin Iohannes.
What the Arabic carries
Yahya, he lives, a name the Quran says had not been given before.
Full name page
Yahya on AsrNaam

Is John the same as Yahya? Yes. John is the English form and Yahya the Arabic form of one name. The Quran says no one before him had been given the name, which is the announcement of his birth in Surah Maryam.

Yahya in the Quran

Yahya is the prophet English readers know as John the Baptist, and the Quran does something with his name it does not do with any other. In Surah Maryam, God tells Zakariyya that his son will be called Yahya, and adds that no one before him had been given that name. The name is the announcement.

He is described as given wisdom while still a boy, and as dutiful to his parents, neither arrogant nor disobedient. Peace is pronounced on him on the day he was born, the day he dies and the day he is raised alive, a formula the same chapter later gives to Isa.

The Arabic Yahya carries the sense of living, which sits oddly and deliberately beside the Hebrew Yochanan. Arab Christians generally use Yuhanna for the same figure, so the two names in Arabic mark the two traditions.

Using the name

The full entry for Yahya 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 Yahya page →

Questions about John and Yahya

Is John the same name as Yahya?
John is the English form and Yahya is the Arabic form of the same name. They refer to the same figure.
Is Yahya the same as John the Baptist?
Yes. Yahya is the Quranic name for the son of Zakariyya, the prophet Christians call John the Baptist.
What does the Quran say is unusual about the name Yahya?
That no one had been given it before him. The verse is Surah Maryam 19:7.
Can a Muslim family use the name Yahya?
Yes. Yahya is used as a given name across the Muslim world. AsrNaam carries its full page with the Arabic spelling, the pronunciation, the lucky number and the letter-by-letter Ilm ul Huroof reading.

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 NuhJacob and YaqubJonah and YunusJob and AyyubAaron and HarunIsaac and IshaqIshmael and Ismail

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