# Boutros Boutros Gali - what ethnicity? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 7, 2003, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boutros-boutros-gali-what-ethnicity/173685 "2003-05-07T16:07:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2003, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boutros-boutros-gali-what-ethnicity/173685/1 "2003-05-07T16:07:25Z")
I believe Mr Gali is Egyptian, but that doesn’t sound a very Egyptian name. From what culture/ethnicity is it derived? ---
**Author:** ![manwithaplan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f1d935/32.png) [@manwithaplan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manwithaplan)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2003, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boutros-boutros-gali-what-ethnicity/173685/2 "2003-05-07T16:40:20Z")
Apparently he comes from a Coptic Christian family. His surname is Boutros-Ghali and his given name is Boutros. I used to think he came from the Ghali family and was christened by a priest with a stutter. ---
**Author:** ![everton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecb155/32.png) [@everton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/everton)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2003, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boutros-boutros-gali-what-ethnicity/173685/3 "2003-05-07T16:51:10Z")
I have heard that Boutros is an Arabic version of Peter. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2003, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boutros-boutros-gali-what-ethnicity/173685/4 "2003-05-07T17:04:25Z")
Yes, “Boutros” is “Peter.” It is a name encountered only among Arabic Christians (mostly Lebanonese). In this case (and operating with niether safety net nor cite) BBG is an Egyptian Christian who is married to an Egyptian Jew. In other words, he was bred in a lab to be the perfect UN Secretary General. ---
**Author:** ![AWB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2003, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boutros-boutros-gali-what-ethnicity/173685/5 "2003-05-07T17:38:14Z")
IIRC: “Gali” is like -son ending of English surnames. So he’s Peter Peterson. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2003, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boutros-boutros-gali-what-ethnicity/173685/6 "2003-05-08T06:47:53Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by AWB \* > \*\*IIRC: > > “Gali” is like -son ending of English surnames. So he’s Peter Peterson. \*\* **No** , absolutly not. Gali, or more properly, Ghali is not like son and has no relationship. Arabic does not use stem endings in this manner. Ghali means expensive or having much worth. Ibn or bin is the partical meaning son in Arabic, so Peter son of Peter in Arabic is, using this form, Boutros ibn Boutros. Boutros is an Arabization of the Greek form of Peter, used in Coptic circles largely by my observation, athough Paul notes Lebanese use it as well. The Maronites I know seem to prefer different forms, but all the same in the end. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2003, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boutros-boutros-gali-what-ethnicity/173685/7 "2003-05-08T06:58:42Z")
Now, I **I** RC, his grandfather’s last name was simply Ghali. His first was Boutros. Boutros Boutros-Ghali’s parents honoured his grandfather twice, by changing their name to Boutros-Ghali, and by naming their son Boutros. (sadly, while I remember that Boutros Ghali was important in Egypt, I can’t remember how, and I’m not having any luck with finding the information. \>\_\< ) ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2003, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boutros-boutros-gali-what-ethnicity/173685/8 "2003-05-08T07:09:28Z")
Boutros Ghali Pasha (or Basha) was among the first Copts to be Prime Minister in Egypt, c. 1910 or so. As I recall he got whacked for being too close to the British, but I hope Tamerlane will check me on this. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2003, 7:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boutros-boutros-gali-what-ethnicity/173685/9 "2003-05-08T07:40:02Z")
Cheers, C. That’d be the missing point. (And a correction on a mistake I made?) ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2003, 7:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boutros-boutros-gali-what-ethnicity/173685/10 "2003-05-08T07:46:50Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Tengu \* > \*\*Cheers, C. That’d be the missing point. (And a correction on a mistake I made?) \*\* Your subsidiary observation in re his grandfather, I am unaware of the family history in re freezing the Boutros Ghali name in honor of the grandfather. That may make sense, but I will also observe that prior to bureactratization, which really takes hold in the 20th century, there was not a tradition of ‘family names.’ Traditional Arab naming practices were X son of Y son of Z etc. etc., although often there might be a ‘frozen’ sort of family nisba attached to them, be it clan based and/or on some famous ancestor. E.g. the famous Ibn Khaldoun’s own ‘name’ here (not his given) is a reference to a famous ancestor, not his father. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2003, 10:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boutros-boutros-gali-what-ethnicity/173685/11 "2003-05-08T10:56:53Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Collounsbury \* > Boutros Ghali Pasha (or Basha) was among the first Copts to be Prime Minister in Egypt, c. 1910 or so. As I recall he got whacked for being too close to the British, but I hope Tamerlane will check me on this. Pretty much. Prime Minister from 1908, assassinated 1910. - Tamerlane ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2003, 11:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boutros-boutros-gali-what-ethnicity/173685/12 "2003-05-08T11:02:38Z")
Well bloody hell… I just said 1910 as a round date. Okay, sometimes guessing works. ---
**Author:** ![Andy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/aeb1de/32.png) [@Andy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2003, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boutros-boutros-gali-what-ethnicity/173685/13 "2003-05-08T11:33:11Z")
He’d probably be less than delighted with the cockney rhyming slang to which his moniker has become attached… Look [here](http://www.inmaniac.com/crs.html) if you’re not familiar 😉