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Most Popular British Boys’ Name: Mohammed?
Baby Boy Mohammed?
Baby name trends rarely create controversy. But when Mohammed was recently declared the #1 boys’ name in Britain, some folks were outraged that a traditionally Muslim name beat out classics like Jack and Harry.
On “Real Time with Bill Maher,” the comedian said he was “alarmed” by the baby-naming trend. Why exactly?
“Am I a racist to feel alarmed by that?” Maher asks his guests. “Because I am. And it’s not because of the race, it’s because of the religion. I don’t have to apologize, do I, for not wanting the Western world to be taken over by Islam in 300 years?”
According to The Daily Mail, counting all of the various spellings of Mohammed, it has become the most popular name for newborn boys in Britain.
Jack had ranked at the top of the list for the past 14 year, but is now #3 following Mohammed and Oliver. Harry and Alfie round out the top 5.
The official list ranking names of all births in England and Wales in 2009 ranked Mohammed at number 16. But that list didn’t take into consideration the various spellings of Mohammed (which are all ranked separately).
Counting the 12 variations of the name, a total of 7,549 newborns were given Islamic prophet Mohammed’s name last year. Alternative spellings (in order of popularity) are: Muhammad, Mohammad, Muhammed, Mohamed, Mohamad, Muhamed, Mohammod, Mahamed, Muhamad, Mahammed and Mohmmed.
Mohammed has been steadily growing in popularity. Since 1999 the number of babies called Mohammed (including various spellings) has jumped by more than 50% (in 1999, only 4,579 newborns in England were named Mohammed).
Clearly, the increased popularity is linked to the population change in England. But I see no reason to be alarmed by the popularity of the name Mohammed. Are you alarmed by the baby naming trend?
And do you think Mohammed will catch on as a name in the U.S.? In 2009, Mohammed ranked as the # 643 on the Social Security baby names index for boys (taking into account only one spelling of the name).
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12 Comments
bob commented on Nov 02 10 at 9:56 amI wonder about the cultural undercurrents that may be driving the old-testament name trend here in the U.S. and I wonder if religious belligerence is a part of it.
Anon commented on Nov 02 10 at 10:03 amAm I being dense? Doesn’t the name going from #520 to #643 mean it’s declining in popularity, not gaining?
paulabernstein commented on Nov 02 10 at 10:44 amAnon, you’re not dense at all! Thanks for the catch. I changed the post to reflect the numbers. My mistake. The name Mohammed doesn’t seem to be gaining in popularity in the U.S.
ChiLaura commented on Nov 02 10 at 10:50 amWow. Yeah, bob, we gave 2 of our 3 boys OT names *for spite* because we couldn’t come up with anything better (#3 got a New Testament name). Not because we liked them, or liked their meanings, or anything like that. [sarcasm here, in case anyone misse it] WTF? Or maybe, you know, it’s just because we didn’t want to give our kids stupid madeup names like Jayden, or a stupid spelling, like Landunn, or a stupid hipster/dog name, like Rufus. Nope! Religious belligerence!
bob commented on Nov 02 10 at 11:19 amDidn’t say quite that. Though I’m sorry for upsetting anyone. There are way too many people choosing these names for that, and maybe belligerence is too unsubtle a word anyway. My thoughts may be too half-baked to air here, anyway. But I’ll try a little more to clarify before I take it all back… Name fashion is a pretty mysterious thing, the way our independent assessments of what sounds good remain somehow congruous. I guess I find the timing of this particular taste trend interesting in that it coincides in time with our wars in islamic countries and the fact that other countries like England, without our strong religious strain, don’t share our taste for these names. It’s entirely reasonable that many (most?) people who choose O.T. names do so with little religious antipathy. I just wonder if there is some connection that makes the sound of these particular names pleasing right now.
ChiLaura commented on Nov 02 10 at 11:56 ambob: I’m a little bit sorry, at least; I’ve been exceedingly grouchy sinceabout 10 last night. So I may have unjustly jumped down your throat, at least a little. Anyway, what I would concede is that maybe parents are choosing OT names in part as a way to signal religious identity, to some degree. I do, however, think “belligerence” is WAY too strong a word. Belligerence would be “Muslims Suck Smith” or something like that, or naming one’s child after a famous Muslim-slayer of history or legend and letting everyone know about it. And a lot of these names are “old-fashioned” sounding, right?, which fits in with that whole trend right now. So naming one’s child with an OT name can simultaneously signal religious identity to an extent and partake in a naming trend.
Again, sorry for jumping down your throat. I wasn’t terribly offended (would an “eye roll” have softened the tone at all?); I AM tired of beig told that b/c I’m a conservative, and religious, I’m also a homophobe, or Islamophobe, or bigot, or what-have-you. Which is pretty much all that babble and its commenters tell me, and part of the reason that I so rarely read babble anymore. “Belligerence,” I guess, was the final straw. =P
Linda, the original one commented on Nov 02 10 at 12:11 pmWell, they’re Hebrew names, bob. From the Torah. That’s why we picked all three of our children’s names. I’ve never heard it called “belligerent” before ??? !
Laure68 commented on Nov 02 10 at 12:42 pmBill Maher is a hypocritical moron. I wouldn’t pay attention to anything he says.
bob commented on Nov 02 10 at 12:55 pmI think there is a “GOD BLESS America” variety of religious antipathy present in American culture which was inflamed by terrorism and our foreign engagements, and I also tend associate the old testament with tales of violent religious conflict and smiting. So, I surmise that perhaps the increasing overall taste for names with O.T. roots has some connection to that attitude. From what I’ve observed, however, fashion doesn’t require that all adopters embrace the thing that sparked a trend at its outset (and there’s also a baseline of people who would have used OT names regardless of fashion).
I don’t mean that people naming their kids OT names are themselves expressing religiously enmity, and I’m sorry that my original comment was unsophisticated.
Michelle Horton commented on Nov 02 10 at 12:59 pmI’m sure that such a jump in popularity MUST have something to do with religion, but my son’s name is from the OT — as were all of our other name choices — and I’m not religious in the least, neither is my family. I know I’m probably in the minority, but there are cases of people just liking the strong, classic names. On the other hand, the name “Mohammed” is kind of the equivalent of the name “Jesus” jumping up to the #1 spot, so I can definitely see why some people are taken aback.
michelle commented on Nov 02 10 at 1:30 pmI’m sorta surprised not really) that someone who claims to value reason, as Bill Maher does, is not able to do math or think critically. Muslims make up only about 4% of the UK population. The reason Mohammed is #1 on the list, I think, has to do with the fact that there is less variety among Muslim boys’ names and not because OMG A SCARY MUSLIM TERRORIST TAKEOVER. Mohammed is probably THE most popular name in Pakistan (something like 90% of boys/men have it as either a first or middle name). Many UK Muslims are of Pakistani origin. Meanwhile, there is a much wider variety of boys’ names among other ethnic/religious groups in the UK. SO…this is a longer way of saying what Laure68 said, which is that Bill Maher is a hypocritical moron.
L commented on Dec 27 10 at 11:24 amExcuse me, but is Bill Maher British? (I am). What’s it got to do with him? I’m fairly sure that no-one in the UK has heard of him (though admittedly I have been away for a few years) Thanks Michelle for saying what I wanted to say about cultural considerations.
Bill Maher is the one who did ‘Religulous’, isn’t he? Which I enjoyed in a way (as an atheist/Buddhist-philosophy-leaning person who disbelieves anything supernatural that has been added to Buddhism over the years, and enjoys a break from certain kinds of fundamentalism that surrounds me in my new home in the US) but I always like to stop short of being actively disrespectful of PEOPLE who are religious, where possible. I have no respect for certain ACTIONS, whether the people in question are religious or not, but there’s no need to be disrespectful towards any religion or its followers. Unless they’re actively hurting others in the name of said religion, in which case I think one should do what one can to make them stop. I think being an atheist is compatible with being a decent person, you see, amazingly enough.
I think that in places Bill Maher and a few others enjoy making fun of people a little too much and cross that line of going ‘haha, religion is stupid, so you must be too!’ for their own amusement, which I don’t think is, frankly, very nice! (Blame my upbringing for that if you like – which wasn’t religious at all – in Britain most people are very apathetic about religion, despite the country being technically somewhat Christian-lite).
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