Sa‘id

Sa‘id (also spelled Saeed, Saeid, Said, or Sayid, Arabic: سعيد‎, Sa‘īd) is a male Arabic given name meaning "happy". For the female version, see Saida (name); for the Turkish variant, see Sait.

The Maltese surname Said, pronounced [saɪt], has the same origin but has been borne by Latin Catholics for over seven centuries. Most Maltese surnames are of Italian origin, but this (with Abdilla) is one of the very few authentically Arabic given names that have survived in the islands as family names. It is a variant of the medieval Sicilian Christian surname Saido, Saito (Saidu) which was derived from the Siculo-Arabic given name Sa'īd used by both Muslims and Christians. In Sicily and Malta this surname was sometimes italianized as (De) Felice. The surname was established in Malta by 1419, appearing mostly as Sayd in the militia list of that year. In the 1480 militia list it is spelt mostly Said, but was later variously written Said, Sayd, Sajt, Sait in the Catholic church census of 1687. The anachronistic and undocumented claim that 'Nicolò Sayd', a grandson of Cem (1459–1496, the renegade son of Turkish Sultan Mehmet II) settled in Malta and became the ancestor of all Maltese bearing the surname Said is a fantasy inspired by the writings of historical novelists Maurice Caron and John Freely and recently promoted by amateur genealogists.