Arabic–English business card: layout, names and job titles for the UAE

In the UAE, a business card often has to work for two audiences at once: people who read Arabic first and people who read English first. A bilingual card does that well, as long as both languages say the same thing, your name is spelled the same way everywhere, and the Arabic is laid out the way Arabic is read.

This guide covers the details that most often go wrong: name order and spelling, job titles, honorifics, right-to-left layout and fonts, what happens when someone saves your Arabic name to their phone, and how the printed and digital versions of your card fit together.

Your name: order and spelling

Use the same order in both languages. Arabic names are usually written as given name, father's name and family name, and the English version follows the same order: Mohammed Ahmed Al Mansoori and «محمد أحمد المنصوري». If you normally use a shorter form, such as given name and family name only, use that same short form on both sides.

Match your official documents. Use the Latin spelling that appears on your passport and Emirates ID. Arabic names have several common spellings in English (Mohammed, Mohamed and Muhammad, for example), and a card that matches your documents means people can find you in their inbox, on LinkedIn and in contracts.

Pick one form of the family prefix. Al Mansoori, Al-Mansoori and AlMansoori are all in use. Choose the one on your passport and use it everywhere: on your card, in your email signature and on LinkedIn. In Arabic, the article is joined to the name: «المنصوري».

Have the Arabic checked if Arabic isn't your first language. If your name comes from another language, ask a native Arabic speaker or a certified translator to write it in Arabic script, and keep that version for good. A name spelled differently on different cards looks like two different people.

20 common job titles in English and Arabic

Arabic job titles change with gender: the feminine form usually ends in «ة», as in «مدير» and «مديرة». Where the table shows two forms, the first is masculine and the second feminine; «العضو المنتدب» is used for both.

A few rules of thumb:

• “Senior” follows the title in Arabic. Senior Consultant is «مستشار أول».
• “Director” and “Manager” are both often translated as «مدير». Use the Arabic title your employer already uses on official documents, such as your employment contract, so that your card matches them.
• Don't write an English title in Arabic letters («سيلز مانجر») on a formal card. Use the Arabic term.
• Stay consistent with your colleagues. If your company already has bilingual cards, use the same Arabic titles as everyone else.

Honorifics and professional titles

Prefixes such as Dr. («د.» or «الدكتور») and Eng. («م.» or «المهندس») are widely used in the Gulf, and they belong on your card if you hold the qualification. Forms of address such as Sheikh and His or Her Excellency («معالي» or «سعادة») follow official protocol. Our UAE business card etiquette guide explains who uses which and how to address people correctly.

Right-to-left layout that reads well

Arabic runs right to left, so a good bilingual layout mirrors the English side rather than copying it:

• Mirror the alignment. English aligns left and Arabic aligns right. If your logo sits top-left on the English side, it usually sits top-right on the Arabic side.
• Keep phone numbers, email addresses and links left to right, even on the Arabic side, and write phone numbers with the digits 0–9 and the country code first (+971 50 123 4567). That's the form people type into a keypad or WhatsApp.
• Never letter-space Arabic. Arabic letters join; spacing them out breaks the words apart. Avoid slanted “italic” Arabic and outline effects as well.
• Give Arabic more room. At the same size, Arabic generally needs more line height than English, so don't squeeze it into the space the English text left behind.

Fonts that work on paper and on phones

For print, use a typeface designed for Arabic rather than letting your design software substitute one, and pair it with your English font. Free, well-made families on Google Fonts include Noto Naskh Arabic, Noto Kufi Arabic, IBM Plex Sans Arabic, Cairo and Tajawal.

On a digital card, the text is live rather than printed, so the phone shapes the Arabic letters itself and the text stays sharp at any size. Keep your name and title as text, not inside an image: words baked into a logo or banner can't be copied, searched or read aloud by a screen reader.

How your Arabic name saves to iPhone and Android

When someone saves your contact, their phone stores whatever the contact file contains. On Cardly.ae, Save contact saves the version of your card the person is viewing: if they're reading it in Arabic, your Arabic name, title and company are saved; if they're reading it in English, the English versions are. Your family name keeps its prefix, so Al Mansoori stays together as one family name, and the saved contact includes your card link, which opens both languages.

This matters because people search their contacts in the script they saved: someone who saved «ليلى المنصوري» won't find you by typing “Layla”. If you know a contact will search in English, ask them to switch your card to English before they tap Save contact.

Need a contact QR code for a printed card or a slide? The free vCard QR code generator makes one with your name in Arabic and English.

The printed side and the digital side

On a printed bilingual card, the usual format in the UAE is English on one side and Arabic on the other, with both sides equally complete. A digital card works differently: one card holds both languages, and each visitor chooses.

An easy way to connect the two is to print your digital card's QR code on the paper card, so anyone holding it can open the digital version and save your details. If you order an NFC card, you don't have to choose one language for its printed face: on a Cardly.ae NFC card your name and title can be printed in Arabic, English or both, with the second language set smaller under the first. The chip opens your bilingual digital card either way.

Checklist for a bilingual card

• Name in the same order and spelling as your passport and Emirates ID, in both languages.
• Arabic job title taken from your employer's official documents, in the right gender form.
• Arabic aligned right; phone numbers and emails left to right, with the digits 0–9.
• A real Arabic typeface, no letter-spacing and enough line height.
• Name and title as live text on your digital card, not inside an image.
• Save contact tested in both languages on an iPhone and an Android phone.

Create your bilingual card free, or follow our step-by-step guide to creating a digital business card.