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28 March 2024

Mohammed most popular name for baby boys in UK

Mohammed is top baby boy name choice in UK (Supplied)

Published
By Staff

Mohammed has become the most popular name for newborn boys in Britain.

It shot up from third the previous year, overtaking Jack, which had topped the list for the past 14 years but was relegated to third spot, the Daily Mail reported.

Olivia topped the list for little girls for the second year in a row, behind Ruby and Chloe.

A total of 7,549 newborns were given 12 variations of Prophet Mohammed’s (PBUH) name last year, such as Muhammad and Mohammad.

The second most popular boy’s name, Oliver, was given to 7,364 babies.

Harry and Alfie came in fourth and fifth place respectively.

The official list, which covers all births in 2009 in England and Wales, has Mohammed at number 16 but this does not include the many different spellings, which are all ranked separately.

When they are added in, Mohammed zooms all the way up to top spot for the first time.

Since 1999 the number of babies called Mohammed, however spelled, has increased by more than half. In 1999 the name was given to 4,579 newborns.

Going even further back, the single spelling Mohammed appeared at 73 in the list in 1964 and 87th in 1944.

Some names appeared to have been given a popularity boost by celebrity association.

There were 282 boys called Brooklyn, 78 called Romeo and 73 called Cruz – sharing their names with the sons of David and Victoria Beckham.

The top 100 names lists include six new entries for boys: Aiden, Arthur, Frederick, Jude, Stanley and Austin. The girls’ list had just three new entries: Heidi, Mya and Sara.

Overall, the popularity of the most common names has changed little, with the top tens for both boys and girls remaining almost identical.

There were 706,248 children born in England and Wales last year.