Ideally, every word and action should ultimately revolve around the Creator only; in some instances, reaction to ongoing circumstances can be an acceptable practicality.  Therefore, an introductory level discussion on a few popularly discussed points regarding the names Luqman and Abdullah, along with a few others, are written here.

There can be components about names that apply to large numbers, and there are specific details that refer to specific names.

Portions of personal background

The given name or names of the author of this website is Luqman Abdullah; Abdullah, is a given name as well to follow Luqman in word order arrangement. The patriline surname is Thornton.  

In summary, the name or names first given to me as a child, transliterated and written in English was Abdul Luqman.  After thoughtful contemplation and collaboration by high level scholars, during my early childhood, the given name of Abdul Luqman was then set as Luqman Abdullah.

Brief history of the Thornton name in agnatic line

On the agnatic side, meaning only referring to father, (father’s.. father’s… line,) the surname of my grandfather as well as it consistently going back in direct pedigree to the ancestor of oldest record that can I can attest to is Thornton.  Patriline, is used to refer to this father's line surname.  Patriline surname is not a part of my name, simply a method of explaining what the name refers to.  There are other terms that could be to accomplish the objective.  For example, Arab cultures might use, briefly transliterated, ism al-ajdad (grandfather), a’ela (family), or similar terms to refer to the same.

Accepted derivations of what patriline means is briefly, pater, Latin, father, joined with line.  

‘Record’ pertaining to names means, there is a valid legal record that can be substantiated, such as through a certificate, birth, marriage, or death record; not guessing/hypothesizing/theorizing/logical reconstructions, from a broad pool of names from a distant land of what it might have sounded like.  

According to record and what has been passed down to me, my agnatic paternal grandfather is James Thornton.  His father of record is LTC Dr James Thornton, born in the Oberlin Village area of Raleigh, North Carolina later moving to New York City.  Said Dr. Thornton was son, perhaps the youngest of a number of children, of Frank Thornton, who according to record was born in Virginia, and around the era the Civil War concluded, moved to the Oberlin Village area.

Notes about the name Thornton

To some, Thornton is a fusion reflecting thorn, and ton or, or from, tun. The thorn may be indicative of having to do with thorns, and ton or tun, a region, settlement, or pasture, among other terms of the sort, described by having thorn qualities. The first part of the name may have other derivations depending on the historical account.

“Old English þorn ‘thorn bush’ + tun ‘enclosure’, ‘settlement’” (https://www.ancestry.com/name-origin?surname=thornton)

Similar account in more detail: "English and Scottish: habitational name from any of the numerous places throughout England and Scotland so called, from Old English þorn ‘thorn bush’ + tūn ‘enclosure’, ‘settlement’.2 Irish: Anglicized (translated) form of Gaelic Mac Sceacháin ‘son [*] of Sceachán’ (https://ancestors.familysearch.org/en/GSW8-M6Q/roger-thornton-1284-1330).

*What does 'son' and perhaps even ... in that piece of writing refer to? Incidentally, whether applicable or not, in part or not, so the following couple of paragraphs might or might not help clarify a few things having to do with those quotes, some scholars have discussed two matters which may help explain what may have been an attempt to summarize and encapsulate, but not necessarily be taken word for word as the literal whole truth. 

One, concept found in different scholastic works, for instance commentaries on other books, is that 'son', similar to use of the term 'bany' (often taken to mean sons of, children of, or descendants of), could refer to a process that takes numerous years involving numerous people such as an entire clan. For example, a nation that was the result of a merger of several tribes hundreds or thousands of years before it. 

Second, there are written findings of individuals' studies where they will elaborate on their theories, distinguished from facts, about early ancestry of Celtic tribes, and sometimes there are theories discussed that bring up Scyth, and, there are scholastic materials which say, "...also called Scyth, Saka, and Sacae..." (https://www.britannica.com/topic/Scythian).

[Personal story, I remember writing out roughly 20 or so years ago, near the turn of year 2000, a Thornton pedigree chart having ilk of knights and nobles which had it the Gray or DeGray, reference to 1300s England, at which point in my more youthful days, I was told it had little or nothing to do with me. About a dozen years later, found written studies on the earliest beginnings of how the Thornton name started to become used. It may be apparent that there are eventualities that different sets of information might somehow all go in the buildup of increased understanding.]

Almost all historical writings found in English today agree that the name Thornton is very old, dating back perhaps thousands of years.

To what degree Anglicization affected the name, makes for good study.

Studies in Icelandic may show a set history, still reflected in current use.

Because of the age, and predates the 26 letter alphabet of modern English, other languages are bound to have numerous readings on the subject.

Exegesis and discussion about the names Luqman, Abdullah, and older names generally:

An exegesis is an exposition, or explanation; especially an explanation or critical interpretation of a text. (Definition provided, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/exegesis; 1/6/2021).

Luqman is a very old name perhaps dating back at least several thousand years.  As one might anticipate, those eras might have predated modern language construction and alphabets used commonly today.  All in-depth details, will not be gone into here.  It can be said, that this spelling of my name in the English used commonly today, keep in mind others spell it differently, is an effort to closely transliterate the name Luqman written and spoken in Arabic.

What we see today, a six letter formation of English letters, is in consideration of a long and broad history. What we often see today in mundane reading are the remnants of knowledge and language and a best effort to preserve what is left. There are other 'ways of spelling' the same name.  Confer orthography, the spelling systems of languages.

Here is a basic timeline comprised of some of the better known events in history that give rise to the current English transliterations of Luqman:

Luqman,  there is a Surah in Quran having that name; some translate Surah/surah,  as ‘Chapter/chapter’ [and ayat as verse]  in the Quran.

Luqman the famous man, mentioned in the Surah, is said by some to have been from Abyssinia, in the region of modern day Ethiopia, other sources say southern Arabia, near modern day Yemen, another knowledge set is there is the 'true home' of Luqman Al-Hakim.  Vagaries among scholars as to agreements of what Abyssinia means historically, is another discussion.   If Luqman Al Hakim interfaced with the Court of Dawud (peace on him), (when there is the w to v pronunciation shifts, known as King David), was roughly per elementary teachings 1000 years before Isa/Jesus the Prophet, among the nomenclatures for the region around that time of what is referred to as Abyssinia and Ethiopia, might be considered the Land of Punt.  This region according to some maps encompasses both, modern day Ethiopia and wrapping in a belt-like manner southward and on around the southern area of the Arabian Peninsula.

Languages spoken in Abyssinia, languages spoken in Ethiopia, Amharic, Nilo, Arabic, Dahlak, and at least a 100 others, then what has been lost and modified of these over, for conversation brevity, about 3000 years ago to now, might be a matter to consider in terms of what was, and what is now, for the name Luqman.  See PDF document inserted further down this webpage of languages and related nomenclatures of related spoken groups that have been in and around the region known by names such as Abyssinia, Punt, and Ethiopia; the list has over 100.  Gaining a command of the history of all of these as they go back an estimated 4000 years, might allow an inkling more knowledge about the subject.  Point being, there is a lot of knowledge out there, in comparison to what is currently used in conversation in English.

The era that Luqman, or Luqman Al-Hakim, as he is popularly known, was roughly a few thousand years before the Quran was written into well known tangible book form that can be held open today, around the first few Khalifa era, 1300 or so years ago.

Confer the following two quotes excerpts from an article on the subject at almahdara.com of the revealed Quran, with respect to later writings:

"

Ibn Katheer said: 

Either the Koran [Quran] is taught; it is better for the mouth of the minarets, because the writing does not indicate the performance. 

Ben Jazari said: 

Relying on the transfer of the Koran to save hearts and chests are not on the line of the Koran and these books.

" 

Those statements among others precludes being improperly imbalanced hang-ups with orthography.

Confer:

"...Muhammad's [salla..; 'prayers, blessings...'] time as a prophet, the verses of the Quran were memorized as they were revealed, and about 42 scribes wrote the verses on different materials."

"Abu Bakr formed a delegation under the leadership of Zaid ibn Thabit, one of the leading scribes."

Source: https://www.dailysabah.com/feature/2017/06/02/history-of-the-compilation-of-quran 

Confer: "...with the expansion of the Islamic state, the third caliph, ‘Uthman, ordered that a number of copies should be made from this to be distributed to different parts of the Muslim world as the official copy of the Qurʾan, which became known as the ‘Uthmanic Codex." Source: http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/article/book/islam-9780192831934/islam-9780192831934-miscMatter-6 

Luqman,  there is a Surah having that name; some translate Surah/surah,  as ‘Chapter/chapter’ in the Quran; reference the seven wisdoms or advices to his son.

The English language has changed over the millenniums and centuries.  Certain letters and letter formations have been dropped.  Most sources on the Internet state that the evolution of the modern day English alphabet was drawn out of the Latin and Runic Futhorc alphabets, where before modern English was perhaps Middle English, and Old English, and other earlier histories.

Other languages, sounds, and diphthongs, have ‘died out’, been dropped, phased out, extinct as well.  Numerous sounds in the French language, that were pronounced just in recent centuries, are not even referenced in authoritative sources on the French language as used currently.  Old Scottish and Irish writing systems and letters, virtually unused and unknown currently.

When one looks at the top of the first or cover page of the document having portions written in French, 'Fables of Loqman Le Sage', at the very top it is written in Arabic transliterated here, Amthal Luqman Al Hakim.  One might state that Fables of Loqman Le Sage is a translation of the Arabic, where Amthal corresponds to Fables, al to Le (English 'the'), and Sage is Hakim. Confer https://archive.org/details/fablesdeloqmanle00luqm/page/n2.

Today most conversation English is expected to be 26 letters, and Arabic 30 letters.

{Use of dashes when transliterating Arabic to English, has issues, as there are often no dashes in the Arabic it was transliterated.}

The spelling Luqman, -as told to me for my case-, is intended to correspond to the Arabic consonants, the ‘a’ to the letter or vowel Aliph, and the u, as a pronunciation of vowel sound of the first letter L, the L corresponding to the Arabic letter ‘lam’.  As noticeable, the use of English vowels is used for two separate rules, one for a vowel letter and the other for a vowel sound.  Without going into fine point detail.  Again, the spelling is a best effort, making use out of what we have today.

Those that have knowledge and understanding about the philology of Luqman and similar names, especially Luke and Luca, it may be easy to see where the history starts unraveling.  Interestingly, translations for Luqman into English often have to do with enlightenment.  The word 'light', can show etymologies that go back through leoght, then to lu with a character adjacent to it that looks like an 'x' but with spacing between the diagonal portions, on to 'lux', then appears as Luke, said as such and so forth.  How much difference is there really from the Arabic form and transliterations?  A subject to study.

An excerpt from an etymology site:

"light (n.)

"brightness, radiant energy, that which makes things visible," Old English leht (Anglian), leoht (West Saxon), "light, daylight; spiritual illumination," from Proto-Germanic *leukhtam (source also of Old Saxon lioht, Old Frisian liacht, Middle Dutch lucht, Dutch licht, Old High German lioht, German Licht, Gothic liuhaþ "light"), from PIE root *leuk- "light, brightness."" https://www.etymonline.com/word/light 

Note: There is a famous man of leadership and wisdom that lived in times that might for brevity be described as ancient, or thousands of years ago, perhaps many thousands of years, in China (or names for the region used earlier), whose first part of his name was Lu, who warned the people against abominations. Not much information is provided here, more might be found in Chinese language texts.

There is Lu Ban, 鲁班; who studied under Zixia, who studied under Confucius [?? needs further sourcing before stating on this webpage all is fact].

Let us look at the name Joel for a second.  Similar applications. Long ago there was an Assyrian(?) (section being worked on) name that when transliterated to modern English sounds like Ya’aweel.   It is extremely rare here in the USA post year 2000, for a man of age 20 give or take 5 years, to say his name is Ya’weel.  Could the spelling Joel correspond?,- maybe.  The letter J in many instances form older names, Jesus, Jeremiah, have an I or Y pronunciation to them, according to some language systems. Jesus pronounced Isa, and Jeremiah pronounced Irmiyah, are accepted as common in Arab society. Because many folks in younger generations especially outside of the primary regions of where it was spoken, are not expected to be adepts of the Assyrian language, nevermind its fine points, it illustrates that today's expectations might overlook some of what is still used.

Abdullah, written in today’s English, is also an attempt to transliterate the Arabic language lettering formulation into English.  Attempt and effort is used to describe the process because exact duplication is ipso facto nearly impossible, as the only way to duplicate the writing is to go from Arabic to Arabic, as many scholars hold.  The first letter 'A' in Abdullah, does not represent an 'a' sound like in the today's English language comprised of 26 letters, rather an Arabic language 'ain' letter and corresponding sound, a case in point.

Abdullah basically corresponds to the Arabic wording which begins with the letter ‘ain’, a guttural sound.  Evident is that the English letter A is often used to transliterate a range of letters, notably Alif and Ain.  When the name is read in the transliterated English, if the person reading it is unfamiliar with the Arabic language, they might not know how to correctly pronounce it.

There is a ‘warning track’ about expounding and going into depth too much in a platform open to all audiences.

Many translate Abdullah, as servant of Allah, where, Abdul is servant, and the second part of the name has to do with Allah, whereat when said together, the first A in Allah is not pronounced.

Deeper studies on the subject may reveal there is much more to the name than that.  

After a while, there is a societal understanding to say the name to the acceptable degree of correct pronunciations, then move on; what all the references are to the name may not be convenient for the tongue to regularly attempt, on mundane circumstances.

~~

Precautions

What is written on the American driver license, plays a big part in the whole situation involving name translation and transference on to English documentation, of a lot of folks with Arabic names.  In India, there are individuals that do not have a last name, surname, or family name.  In Turkey, at one point, surnames were mandatory.  In large countries in the Far East, a family name is necessary on identification law enforcement uses to identify persons. Plus, the arrangement of the names, family name, given name, generation name, and so forth, might not have the arrangement as is here in the USA currently, giving rise to complex issues when positively identifying someone.

‘Changing your name’, often to the 99 Husna names, (reference 99 names and Quran,) for the purpose of hiding and dodging law enforcement, is not as acceptable as it may superficially seem on the surface.  If one deceives him or herself that he or she can successfully deceive others as to their family history by ‘changing the name’ in the manner discussed especially for the purpose of mischief, such as first name Abdul, and ‘new’ last name one of the 99 Husna name, they have no business fiddling with the names at all.

The issue of some individuals (especially in context, changing religion to something other than Christianity) attempting to dodge Anglicization of a name, for instance, by taking on a name that sounds current and popular in the Middle East, is also hit on a tiny bit, in that Anglicization is often associated with Christianity.

Regarding people lookup websites- referent websites that claim to provide free background information on individuals, has proven that they sometimes confuse more than one person with the same or similar name; they also associate others with the name lookup results, such as what they generate as relatives and persons that have resided in the same dwelling, and residential history, in summary, their accuracy levels are not reliable. (section being worked on)

This note is to generally address an ongoing quagmire set forth on the Internet by those websites.  

Law enforcement has the behest to, when in circumstances apt, ascertain information about a person with due detail and discernment.  The same with prospective employers, public service, and educational institutions.  Although the name 'Luqman Abdullah' is rare here in the East Coast U.S., there still are differentiating facts applicable from one person to the next having the same name. 

According to the history of the names Luqman, Abdullah, Thornton, and even names in near or far vernacular, like Luca, Luke, Abdul, Thaar, and Thorn, these names have ancient and very well respected histories that go back perhaps over a thousand years in some cases, or several thousand years in others.  Without digressing into a tirade, the dignification of these names has no room to play games with, including name games, nor predatory mischief.  In cases such as mine, the name was given in the auspices of a 'pedigree of guides' of high spiritual elevation, all of which and of course the root of which is not something that should be used as a play tool or bullying leverage tool into oppressing those with the name.  

The situation of undergoing unfair oppression, in law, name discrimination among them, has happened to many Americans, especially with names sounding like they are vernacular to the Middle East.

The reference to comedy and droll when name based dilemmas occur set in contrast to established guidance, will be withheld for now for a number of reasons. One, information online changes all the time, and the guidance in the clear has been given to last throughout the different ages as to naming systems to preempt any problems. In consideration of 'rules' set upon a person that may not be wholly consistent to established guidance, the formatting of official identification documents such as driver licenses is changing, perhaps annulling at least to some extent what was once a rock and a hard place formed between adherence to a name for loyalty to a belief-based congregation, and person's name in ancestral history.