Semaan

Semaan (Syriac: ܫܡܥܘܢ, romanized: Šemʿōn Arabic: سمعان, romanized: Semʻān), also spelled Sem'an, Semán, Simaan, Sim'an, Samaan, Sam'an, or Sima'an, is a masculine given name mainly found in the Levant of West Asia. It can also be used as a surname. The name is derived from the Semitic root word/verb sema or shema, which means “to hear”; thus, the meaning of Semaan becomes “the one who hears or listens” in both Syriac and Arabic.

The name's equivalent in Hebrew is Shimon or Shim'on (Hebrew: שִׁמְעוֹן‎code: heb promoted to code: he ), which also has the same meaning. The Hebrew form is also the origin for the Arabic name, of which its use as a surname is common in Saudi Arabia. The Greek transliteration is Simon (Greek: Σιμων) or Symeon (Greek: Συμεών), and when Latinized, it becomes Simon or Simeon.

Today, the overwhelming majority of people who hold the Semaan surname are Middle Eastern Christians who belong to various churches of the Syriac rites of Christianity, as well as the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch, the Melkite Greek Catholic Church of Antioch, the Assyrian Church of the East, and the Coptic Orthodox Church. The ethnic origin of Semaan families varies by geographic location, most prevalent of which is Greek-Syrian, descendants of the Byzantine Greek (Rûm) population of the Syrian tetrapolis (Antioch, Seleucia Pieria, Apamea, and Laodicea).