Bosnian Muslims

Steve Collins

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I have a WIP that covers part of the Bosnian war. One of the characters is a German Christian who marries a Muslim and converts. Under these circumstances would she take on a Muslim first name and if so could she choose it? Any ideas would be appreciated.
 

Priene

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Some of the Bosnian Muslim I know don't even have "Muslim" first names themselves, so probably not.
 

crunchyblanket

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Bosnian Muslims tend to have names that are considered traditional Muslim names, however they are usually spelled differently. From Wikipedia:

First names among Bosniaks have mostly Arabic, Turkish, or Persian roots such as Osman, Mehmed, Ismet, Kemal, Hasan, Ibrahim, Mustafa. South Slavic names such as "Zlatan" are also present primarily among non-religious Bosniaks. What is notable however is that due to the structure of the Bosnian language, many of the Muslim names have been altered to create uniquely Bosniak names

Muslim converts are not usually required to change their names. It would be down to the individual, although it is encouraged. If I recall rightly, the only time a non-Muslim would be required to change their name upon conversion would be if their original name had an anti-Islamic meaning, or an explicitly religious meaning in another religion.
 

HistoryLvr

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My friend married a Bosnian Muslim recently (2009) and didn't change her name, which is I don't believe is Christian or anti-Muslim or anything. I think it's down to the individual, the couple, the influence the Muslim culture has on the family members or people in the relationship.
 

AmericaMadeMe

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I have a WIP that covers part of the Bosnian war. One of the characters is a German Christian who marries a Muslim and converts. Under these circumstances would she take on a Muslim first name and if so could she choose it? Any ideas would be appreciated.

It's worth remembering that Yugoslavia had a largely secular society where interfaith marriages were fairly common and casual. If anything, Bosnia was probably the most secular and cosmopolitan area of Yugoslavia, with the highest standard of living in urban areas. In short, your basic premise is flawed, reflecting Middle Eastern stereotypes more than the realities of the Balkans. Start over.
 

backslashbaby

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I agree ^^^

I lived in a Hungarian border town during parts of the wars there, and the secular thing was the most common thing for friends at work, restaurant owners, etc. Most of the people I knew had escaped the country, so there's a selection bias, I'm sure, but religion was barely even mentioned in passing.

People were of such mixed ethnicities from among those ethnic groups that the wars themselves seem to paint a very distorted picture of how cosmopolitan life there used to be.

The only person I knew there who had a noticeably Muslim name and gave them to his kids was from Algeria :)