It was created by orientalist writers like Lovecraft as an "exotic" name and subsequently popularized in the Anglo literatisphere as a stock Arab character name. doesn't really exist in the Arabic-speaking world as an independent name, even if it's become common in western countries.

It comes from the word "abd" (عبد) in Arabic, which means servant or slave, combined with "ul" or "al" (ال), Arabic's only definitive article. "Al" can also express possession. It's often used as part of theonyms like Abdallah, meaning literally "servant of God," or like Kareem Abd-ul-Jabbar's name which means "servant of the mighty."

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    • Bluegrass_Buddhist [none/use name]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Lovecraft didn’t invent it. In fact a lot of the “Inventions” of orientalist writers are more like transplantation of other cultures or misunderstandings rather than outright fabrications.

      Damn, my bad comrade. I could have sworn one of the first known uses of Abdul in English was Lovecraft's Abdul Alhazred character. I'll edit the post to take that out.