Saadia (given name)

{{short description|Arabic, Hebrew and Berber masculine proper name}}

Saadia ({{langx|ar|سعدية}}, {{langx|he|סעדיה}}) or Saadiya is an Arabic, Hebrew and Berber masculine and feminine proper name. It is used as a forename and more rarely as a surname. According to some classical rabbinical sources, the name derives from the Hebrew verb Sa'ad ({{langx|he|סעד}}, support), and means "God has supported". According to researchers at the Wissenschaft des Judentums, however, it is an artificially Hebrewised form of the Arabic name Sa'id (Happy سعيد).Wilhelm Bacher, [http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=4&letter=S SAADIA B. JOSEPH (Sa'id al-Fayyumi)], in Jewish Encyclopedia, éd. Funk & Wagnalls, 1901-1906 It is common that in Arabic-speaking countries, people called Saadia are also known as Sa'id.

Saadia Gaon seems to have been the first to have borne this forename, and is often just referred to as "Saadia," without further explanation; signing himself 'Sa'id ben Yosef' at the beginning of his career, he went on, in his work 'Sefer haGalouï' to call himself "Saadyahou" (סעדיהו). Moses ibn Ezra also uses the form Sa'adel (סעדאל).