Sahourieh

Sahourieh (or sahouria, or sahouriyeh) is the feminized counterpart to Sahouri, meaning "man from Sahour" in the Arabic Language. Sahour refers to Beit Sahour in modern day Palestine (the occupied West Bank).

Sahourieh/ia is most likely used as a last name to describe a group of people. However, the Palestinian culture is patriarchal, and therefore a true feminine last name can only arise as a result of informal naming, generally for community convenience. For example, if two cousins who have identical names (ie. John Smith and his cousin John Smith) have children, it is far more convenient to describe the children by the names of their respective mothers, so as not to confuse the families. This is purely for identification and not done to undermine the patriarch or paterfamilias.

The current Sahourieh/ia family is known to track its roots directly to Ramallah, in the Palestinian territories, and originally carried the family name Thalji, where it was informally changed after years of convenient use.