A peculiarity of the Arabic onomatology is the kunyah, the by-name given to a father after the birth of his son, by which he is named after the latter (Abou, Abo, or Abu followed by the name of his son). It may be added here that Abu al-Walid is a kunyah or by-name for Jonah. Abu also forms family names, as in the case of Abudarham, or Aboab. Here it has to be noted, that the word Abou was sometimes used in the sense of "owner", especially when it was followed by an object that was of importance to the manner in which the surrounding community perceived the person in question. The most prominent example for this is Abou Hassira (owner of a straw mat), a descendant of a long line of kabbalists and pietists from Morocco (born 1807 in Morocco, died 1880 in Egypt, buried in the village of Demitiouh, near Damanhour, in the Governorate of Beheira), whose real name Yaccov Ben Massoud has almost been forgotten, as he has become identified as Rabbi Abou Hassira since his pilgrimage from his homeland to Jerusalem, during which the boat he was on sank, yet he was miraculously saved because he hung on to his straw mat (hassira), which had been his only possession. For this the Egyptian population venerated him from that day on as a holy man and miracle worker, whose life had been protected by the Lord through a frail mat.