Aziz (Arabic: عزيز, ʿazīz, [ʕaziːz]) was originally a Northwest Semitic Phoenician-Aramaic-Hebrew-Arabic word, but is now much more commonly (but not exclusively) known as a Central Semitic Arabic male name. The feminine form of both the adjective and the given name is Aziza.
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Aziz in Arabic is derived from the root ʕ-z-z with a meaning of "strong, powerful" and the adjective has acquired its meaning of "dear, darling, precious". It is a cognate of Hebrew oz meaning "might, strength, power". The Semitic word refers to the "power and glory" of deities and kings. Al-Aziz is one of the names of God in Islam, and the word is also used as a royal title borne by the high nobles of Egypt, being a title borne by the prophet Joseph in the Quranic Surah-e-Yusuf, and also by the Biblical Potiphar; in the Bible, Aziz is referred to as Potiphar.
It is used in existing Semitic languages such as Arabic, Assyrian Neo Aramaic, Mandic, Hebrew, and also in non-Semitic languages like Turkish, Kurdish, Azerbaijani, Persian, Urdu, Pashtu, Dari, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Turkmen, Uzbek, Uyghur, Balochi, Bengali, Somali, Indonesian, and Malaysian.
Aziz is a common masculine given name, especially in the Muslim world but it has also continued to be used by indigenous non-Muslim peoples in the Middle East, e.g. Assyrians, Israeli Jews, and Mandeans.