A senior diplomat has been denied the chance to become Pakistan's ambassador to Saudi Arabia because of an embarrassing translation issue.

Former US Ambassador Akbar Zeb will not be taking on the high-profile job because his name – common enough in Urdu – has a vulgar meaning when translated into Arabic.

"Zeb" is an Arabic slang word for the male genitalia. Combined with "Akbar," his full name takes on the unfortunate meaning of "Biggest Dick."

Saudi commentator Ahmed Al-Omran told The Media Line, "It's hard to imagine that someone's name would be a problem, especially on this level, but I understand why the governments reacted this way.

"It crosses a cultural red line so I don't think the media would dare to publish a name like this. So every time he would be in the media they would have to face the name issue and it would make it difficult to work with him. That would just be an embarrassment for Pakistan."

Mr. Zeb had already been turned down by the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. By the time Saudi Arabia appointment fell through, the reasons for rejection were becoming obvious.

The linguistic conundrum should have been obvious from the beginning, blogger Eman Al Nafjan told The Media Line. "If they were Russian or Chinese we could say maybe they didn't know or they were ignorant. But they are Muslim, they use the Arabic alphabet and they know what his name means in Arabic, so I'm surprised they didn't pick up on it sooner."

08 February 2010