Is it really possible that someone would call his son after a legume, and what does that have to do with ancient Roman Philosophers.

Found this amusing story in Bintel Blog, a part of Forward‘s online version. The writer, took a cab to Ta’ami Hummus in the Jerusalem and was surprised to find out the name of the cab driver was “Abu Hummus”. You should check it out – there’s also a picture.

Technically, the full name of the driver was “Abu Hummus Hasan”, so I suspect “Abu Hummus” is his last name and his first name is “Hasan”. In that case, I guess one of his ancestors got the name by being known for making hummus (calling someone “Abu-something” is kind of saying he is known for that something…).

It is also possible that the name is Abu Hummus-Hasan, which means the drivers son is called Hummus-Hassan. “Abu” means “the father of”, so “Abu Hummus” is the proper name for a man who’s child name is Hummus…

It is interesting to note that the guy who wrote the piece and took the picture is called David Abitbul. “Abitbul” or “Abutbul” is a common Marrocan last name which means “The father of drums” (Abu = father, Tbul = Drum) or rather “the maker of drums”. Such a name is a good indication that this David guy is a predecessor of someone who made drums.

Which leaves us with the last question: is it really possible that someone would call his son Hummus?

And the answer is “Yes, of course”. The great Roman politician and philosopher Marcus Tullius Cicro was called after the same legume Cicre (Latin) is Hummus (Arabic) is Chickpea (English).