Sinbad (you will also see Sindbad) is the sailor in the old story cycle Sinbad the Sailor, part of The Arabian Nights — the big story-book many families know. In the tales he leaves home, meets strange creatures at sea, loses everything, and somehow comes home rich, then goes out again. Seven voyages are the famous ones. He is not a person from history; he is a story hero, like a character in a long adventure book. English has used both spellings; films and pantomime almost always choose Sinbad. The name was borrowed from Arabic, and before that from older Persian. Though actually, a folk story about the name says it is Persian pieces for a place, Sind, plus “wind.” Scholars do not treat that as certain, so we should not teach it as fact. What is sure is the character: the sea-adventure hero of those nights of stories.