Arabic words grow from triliteral roots, and Haybaa grows from h-y-b (ه-ي-ب). The verb hāba means to regard with awe or reverence; the noun hayba denotes the presence that inspires such regard. Classical lexicons, including Ibn Manzur's Lisan al-Arab, completed around 1290, record this root and its derivatives.
The name takes the pattern faʿlāʾ, a feminine adjectival form Arabic uses for attributes — the same pattern seen in words like ṣaḥrāʾ (desert) and ḥamrāʾ (red, feminine). On this pattern, haybāʾ reads as possessing hayba, hence the gloss: a woman of dignified, commanding presence.