Hoboken, N.J. ? Tariq Hasan will henceforth be known as Terry Hasan.

The 35-year-old Pakistani-born financial worker is among a small but growing number of people across the nation going to court to change their names to less Arabic-sounding ones since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Terry Hasan holds his official name change document at his home in Hoboken, N.J. Hasan, 35, who was named Tariq when he was born in Pakistan, has lived in the United States since childhood and works in the financial investment industry. He says he changed his name to Terry to avoid any backlash against Arabs after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Many cite incidents of bias and harassment or fear they could be targeted because the attacks were carried out by Muslim extremists.

“I notice a change in people’s demeanor when I tell them my name is Tariq,” said Hasan, who lives in Hoboken, directly across the Hudson River from where the World Trade Center once stood. “They may be thinking, ‘Oh, you’re one of them.’ Who knows what could happen to me?”

A San Diego man who is serving in the Navy went to the courthouse two days after the Sept. 11 attacks to change his name from Mohamad to Michael. On the form where he was asked to state the reason for the change, he scrawled, “Stereotype, discrimination and prejudice against my name.”

“It’s happening all over,” said Ra’id Faraj, a spokesman for the Council on Islamic-American Relations of Southern California. “The issue we all need to think of is why would someone feel they had no choice but to do this?”

Some Arab-American groups claim that adopting a new name sends exactly the wrong message after Sept. 11: that all Arabs are associated with terrorism, or somehow have something to hide or be ashamed of.

“This is really a shame,” said Hani Awadallah, president of the Arab-American Civic Organization in Paterson, where the community is still smarting from abuse it took after it became known that at least six of the Sept. 11 hijackers lived there. “You’re admitting some kind of guilt, which is not the case. This shows no guts, courage or manhood.”

But Mohammed Khalil, 23, couldn’t get a job until he got his name changed to Michael.

“It’s a terrible situation, but I supported what he was doing,” said his father, John Khalil. “People are biased and prejudiced.” Michael now works at an auto dealership where few people ask what his surname is.

Many other Arabs are changing their names informally, without going to court. Sandra Nichols, a New York immigration lawyer, said many of her clients, already fearful of being detained in the government’s post-Sept. 11 dragnet, are appropriating new names for themselves.

“Some of them call me using American names, and I go, ‘Huh?’ ” she said. “Achmed is now Al, Ibrahim is now Abe, Jamaal is now Jimmy, Mohammed is now Mike or Moe.”