 An Ottoman tax ledger of 1596 lists "`Ayn al-Mayyā" () in the "nahiya" "Ḫalīl" (Hebron subdistrict), and where it is noted that it had in 1596 thirty-six Muslim heads of households.The copyist of the same tax ledger had erroneously mistaken the Arabic "dal" in the document for a "nun", and which name has since been corrected by historical geographers Yoel Elitzur and Toledano to read "A'ïd el-Miah" (), based on the entry's number of fiscal unit in the "daftar" and its corresponding place on Hütteroth's map.The Arabic name, being a corruption of "Adullam", is a product of popular etymology.