How popular is the baby name Ahmed in the United States right now? How popular was it historically? Use the popularity graph and data table below to find out! Plus, see all the blog posts that mention the name Ahmed.

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Popularity of the baby name Ahmed


Posts that mention the name Ahmed

Popular names in Dubai: Mohammed, Mariam

Flag of the United Arab Emirates
Flag of the United Arab Emirates

Here are two recent sets of name rankings out of the United Arab Emirates.

First: In mid-2013, the UAE’s Ministry of Health released “year to date” baby name rankings topped by Mariam/Fatima and Mohammed:

Girl Names (babies in UAE, 2013)

  1. Mariam (tie)
  2. Fatima (tie)
  3. Aiysha
  4. Sara

Boy Names (babies in UAE, 2013)

  1. Mohammed
  2. Abdullah
  3. Ahmed
  4. Ali
  5. Khalid
  6. Saeed
  7. Omar
  8. Rashid

Second: Earlier this month, the Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA) of Dubai — one of the 7 emirates in the UAE — released lists of popular girl names and boy names according to a survey of school registration records. I’m not sure what age range the records covered, but these rankings were also topped by Maryam and Mohammed:

Girl Names (children in Dubai, 2015)

  1. Maryam
  2. Sara/Sarah
  3. Fatima/Fatma
  4. Ayesha
  5. Noor

Boy Names (children in Dubai, 2015)

  1. Mohammed
  2. Ali
  3. Omar
  4. Ahmed/Ahmad
  5. Abdulla/Abdullah

One Dubai student named Mohammed was quoted as saying, “It is common to see four or five students share Mohammed as their first name in a class of 25 to 30 students. We usually get called by our second name.”

(I wonder where Hamad fell on these lists…?)

Sources: Mohammed most popular name for boys, The baby names that Dubai happens to loves the most

Image: Adapted from Flag of the United Arab Emirates (public domain)

Popular twin names in Israel

Flag of Israel
Flag of Israel

As a follow-up to this morning’s post on baby names in Israel:

The most popular names given to Jewish girls this past year were Noa, Shira and Maya, and Daniel, Uri, Itai, Ido and Noam for boys. The most common pairs of names given to twins were Noam [pleasantness] and Amit [companion]; Ohr [light] and Shir [song]; Hod [glory] and Hadar [splendor]; and Shira [song] and Hodaya [thanks].

Among Arabs, the most common name is Muhammed, given to 13.8% of the boys. The most common Arab twins’ names were Muhammed and Ahmed, Muhammed and Mahmoud, and Mahmoud and Ahmed.

This comes from an article that was published in late 2004, so it’s out of date. Still, I thought it was worth posting as it’s the only twin name data for Israel that I’ve ever come across.

Source: Children in Israel

Image: Adapted from Flag of Israel (public domain)

Popular baby names in Israel, 2012

Flag of Israel
Flag of Israel

Israel recently released three lists of popular baby names.

According to the Central Bureau for Statistics, the country’s top names last year were:

  • Noam and Noa for Jewish babies,
  • Mohammad and Maryam for Muslim babies, and
  • George and Maria for Christian babies.

Here are more of the most popular baby names of 2012 within each religious group:

Jewish

Girl Names (Jewish)Boy Names (Jewish)
1. Noa
2. Shira
3. Tamar
4. Talia
5. Maya
6. Yael
7. Sarah
8. Adele/Edel
9. Ayala
10. Michal		1. Noam
2. Uri/Ori
3. Itai
4. Yosef
5. David
6. Yehonatan
7. Daniel
8. Ariel
9. Moshe
10. Eitan

The Jewish names above were listed in my source article, but the Muslim and Christian names below (beyond the #1 names) I had to translate from Hebrew using various online tools/dictionaries, so they might not be perfect.

Muslim

Girl Names (Muslim)Boy Names (Muslim)
1. Maryam
2. Linn
3. Rahaf
4. Lian
5. Rimas
6. Hala
7. Nur
8. Bisan
9. Malek
10. Aya		1. Mohammad
2. Ahmed
3. Mahmad
4. Yosef
5. Adam
6. Abd
7. Omar
8. Ali
9. Mahmoud
10. Amir

Christian

Girl Names (Christian)Boy Names (Christian)
1. Maria
2. Celine
3. Aline
4. Maya
5. Nur
6. Lian
7. Miriam
8. Natalie
9. Tala
10. Miral		1. George
2. Elias
3. Majd
4. Daniel
5. Joseph
6. Hana
7. Julian
8. Charbel
9. Jude
10. Emir

A few years ago, a group of Israeli rabbis released a list of names they thought should be off-limits to Jewish children. Ariel, the 8th most popular name for Jewish baby boys last year, was on their forbidden name list. :)

Sources: Noa, Noam top baby names for 2012, Central Bureau of Statistics

Image: Adapted from Flag of Israel (public domain)

For-profit baby names

California mom-to-be Natasha Hill — the woman who was supposed to be getting $5,000 for allowing strangers to name her unborn baby via the site Belly Ballot — isn’t really pregnant. She isn’t even really named “Natasha Hill.”

Her name is Natasha Lloyd, and she’s an actress who was hired by the website’s founder to help drum up publicity.

Yep — the whole thing was a hoax. The folks at Today.com were the ones to figure it out:

When TODAY Moms first reported on the contest, some readers were incredulous; they couldn’t believe a real mom would do such a thing. Now it appears they were right.

Except…they weren’t. Several “real moms” (and dads) have indeed done such a thing. Here are all the for-profit baby names (and attempts) I know of:

*I never blogged about these three, so here are the details:

  • In 2001, Jason Black and Frances Schroeder of New York tried to auction off the name of the their third child (first son) via Yahoo and eBay. They were aiming for a corporate sponsor, so the bidding started at $500,000. No one bid. They ended up naming the baby Zane Black.
  • In 2002, Bob and Tracy Armstrong from Florida tried to auction off the name of their baby (gender unknown) via eBay. After eBay pulled the auction for the third time, they decided not to try again.
  • In 2002, Heather and Steve Johnston of Washington state tried to auction off the name of their baby boy via eBay. The bidding started at $250,000. I found no follow-up stories, so I imagine the auction was either pulled or unsuccessful.

Video games on one end, $15,000 on the other…such wildly different values placed on baby names. Kinda fascinating, isn’t it?

Sources: $5,000 online baby-name contest revealed as hoax, Mom crowdsources baby name for $5,000

Image: Adapted from $20 Federal Reserve Bank Note (1929) (public domain)

[Latest update: March 2022]