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 [ 3 syll. fa-ti-ma, fat-ima ] The girl name Fatima is pronounced FAETHahMah KEY. Fatima is of Arabic origin. It is used mainly in Arabic and Portuguese. The meaning of Fatima is 'chaste (one who abstains), motherly (one who weans an infant)'. Derived literally from the word fatima which is of the meaning 'abstaining, weaning'. The name was borne by the youngest and favorite daughter of Muhammad (606-632), who was the only child of his to have descendants. Through its associations with the Muslim virtues of chastity and abstention, the name has been popular in the Islamic world. The name was adopted on a occasional basis by English speakers in the 20th century, especially among Roman Catholics in honor of Our Lady of Fatima, a title given to the Virgin Mary by those who believe that she appeared to three shepherd children at Fátima, Portugal in 1917. Variants of Fatima include Fatime (Arabic) and Fátima (Spanish). Fatma (short form in Arabic) and Fatimah (spelling variant in Arabic) are other forms of the name. Fatima is popular as a baby girl name. The name's popularity has been increasing since the 1970s; before that, it was of only irregular use. At the modest height of its usage in 2006, 0.073% of baby girls were named Fatima. It was #228 in rank then. In 2008, it ranked at #249 with a usage of 0.067%, and it was the most popular within all girl names in its family. Baby names that sound like Fatima include Fatimah (Arabic), Fátima (Spanish), Fotina (Greek), Photina (Greek), Fatime (Arabic), Fatin (Arabic), Fatma (Arabic), and Photine (Greek). KEY: English pronunciation for Fatima: F as in "fee (F.IY)" ; AE as in "at (AE.T)" ; TH as in "theta (TH.EY.T.AH)" ; AH as in "hut (HH.AH.T)" ; M as in "me (M.IY)" ; AH as in "hut (HH.AH.T)"   |
