Mohammed Is Now The Most Popular Boys' Name

Mohammed Is Now The Most Popular Boys' Name

Mohammed is now the most popular name for newborn boys in Britain.

The name was in third place but last year shot up to first place, overtaking Jack, which had topped the list for the past 14 years, and now comes third behind Oliver.

A total of 7,549 newborns were given 12 variations of the Islamic prophet Mohammed's 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.

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.

In order of popularity, the variant ­spellings used during the year were: Muhammad, Mohammad, Muhammed, Mohamed, Mohamad, Muhamed, Mohammod, Mahamed, Muhamad, Mahammed and Mohmmed.

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.

Big risers were Lucas, up 19 places since 2008 to 17th in the boys list. Archie climbed 11 places to 20 while Noah jumped 13 places to 32.

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

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