Traditional Arabic names are chains of relationships. A full name typically opens with an ism (the given name), continues with a nasab (the lineage, linked by ibn or bint), and closes with a nisba (an adjective tying the person to a tribe, place, or ancestor). Honorific elements — a kunya such as Abu or Umm, or a laqab, a descriptive epithet — may also appear.
Modern civil systems in the Gulf compress this chain into fixed fields, usually given name, father's name, and family name. The older logic survives inside the shorter form: the middle name is still the father's, and the final surname is very often a tribal nisba such as Al Otaibi.