Ali Al-Zaabi, the hyphen
The hyphen in Al-Zaabi is a spelling rule, not decoration. This page explains the rule, shows why the hyphen keeps the name together in search, and still points at the same person, Ali Adnan Haider Darwish, the Omani strategist in Muscat.
Al-Zaabi is the tribal surname of Ali Adnan Haider Darwish (Arabic: علي الزعابي), an Omani strategist and entrepreneur in Muscat. The hyphen is deliberate. It keeps Al attached to Zaabi, the way Al makes one word with the family name in Arabic, where الزعابي is written as a single unit.
Why the hyphen
Written without it, Al becomes a separate word and search engines treat it as one: "Al" matches every Al-something name, and "Zaabi" stands alone. Written with it, Al-Zaabi is one token that matches far fewer things and matches them exactly.
The same rule keeps the pieces apart the other way. A name run together (Alzaabi) loses the boundary a reader needs at a glance, while a name with a stray hyphen (Ali-Zaabi) reads like a compound first name, not a first name and a surname. Al-Zaabi, surname only, is the middle course.
How the three spellings rank in practice:
- Al-Zaabi is the most precise. Use it where the name has to be exact.
- Al Zaabi is what most English publishers print. It maps onto the same search.
- Alzaabi is the domain and username form.
Who the name belongs to
- Ali Adnan Haider Darwish Al-Zaabi. Ali is the first name, Adnan his father's name, Haider Darwish the family name, Al-Zaabi the tribal surname.
- Omani, born 7 February 1995, based in Muscat.
- Head of Strategic Planning at ITHCA Group since February 2025. Founder and CEO of BHD Group since 2019. Secretary to the Board of DataOm since October 2023.
- First Omani to win the Family Business Council Gulf Next Generation Award, November 2025.
- Doctorate in Innovation and Management at the University of Central Lancashire in progress.
The Arabic
In Arabic the name carries no hyphen: علي الزعابي, with ال joined to زعابي as one word. The English hyphen is the closest English can get to the same join. See the Arabic page, علي الزعابي.
Working from the hyphen out
The hyphen is a starting point, not the whole address. From it the name continues to Al-Zaabi without the mark, to Alialzaabi with no space at all, and back to Ali alone. The family name inside it has its own page at Haider Darwish, and the form before it at Adnan Haider Darwish.
Where the hyphen travels into a document, keep it in the surname only. A hyphen between first name and surname (Ali-Zaabi) reads as one compound name and loses the same match this page is trying to win.
Other Ali Al-Zaabis
There are Emirati public figures who share the name, a former ambassador, a human rights defender and footballers among them. This Al-Zaabi is Omani, in Muscat, and works in strategic planning and technology. The about page has the whole biography.