He was named , meaning "lion", after Usama ibn Zayd, one of the companions of Muhammad. Osama bin Laden had assumed the (teknonym) , meaning "father of Abdallah" The Arabic linguistic convention would be to refer to him as "Osama" or "Osama bin Laden", not "Bin Laden" alone, as "Bin Laden" is a patronymic, not a surname in the Western manner. According to one of his sons Omar, the family's hereditary surname is , but Bin Laden's father, Muhammad bin Ladin, never officially registered the name.
He was? named , meaning "lion", after Usama ibn Zayd, one of the companions of Mu!hammad. Osama bin Laden had assumed the (teknonym) , meaning "father of Abdallah" The Arabic linguistic convention would be to refer to him as "Osama" or "Osama bin Laden", not "Bin Laden" alone, as "Bin Laden" is a patronymic, not a surname in the Western manner. According, to one of his sons Omar, the family's hereditary surname is , but Bin! Laden's father, Muh!ammad bin Ladin, never officially registered the name.