How popular is the baby name Mohammed 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 Mohammed.

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Popularity of the baby name Mohammed


Posts that mention the name Mohammed

Popular baby names in England and Wales (UK), 2011

Flag of the United Kingdom
Flag of the United Kingdom

According to the Office for National Statistics, the new top baby names in England and Wales are Harry and Amelia.

They beat out 2010’s top names, Oliver and Olivia.

Here are the current top 25 names for both boys and girls:

Girl Names

  1. Amelia
  2. Olivia
  3. Lily
  4. Jessica
  5. Emily
  6. Sophie
  7. Ruby
  8. Grace
  9. Ava
  10. Isabella
  11. Evie
  12. Chloe
  13. Mia
  14. Poppy
  15. Isla
  16. Ella
  17. Isabelle
  18. Sophia
  19. Freya
  20. Daisy
  21. Charlotte
  22. Maisie
  23. Lucy
  24. Phoebe
  25. Scarlett

Boy Names

  1. Harry
  2. Oliver
  3. Jack
  4. Alfie
  5. Charlie
  6. Thomas
  7. Jacob
  8. James
  9. Joshua
  10. William
  11. Ethan
  12. George
  13. Riley
  14. Daniel
  15. Samuel
  16. Noah
  17. Oscar
  18. Joseph
  19. Mohammed
  20. Max
  21. Dylan
  22. Muhammad
  23. Alexander
  24. Archie
  25. Benjamin

In Wales specifically, the top names were Oliver and Lily. In London, Daniel and Isabella.

A few other things I noticed…

Usage of Pippa increased in 2011, thanks to the royal wedding:

  • 2011: 250 baby girls named Pippa (rank: 204th)
  • 2010: 124 baby girls named Pippa (rank: 365th)
  • 2009: 125 baby girls named Pippa (rank: 351st)

Usage of another quirky P-name, Pixie, is also on the up thanks to English pop star Pixie Lott:

  • 2011: 99 baby girls named Pixie (rank: 432nd)
    • +6 named Pixie-Lou
    • +5 named Pixie-Leigh
  • 2010: 83 baby girls named Pixie (rank: 485th)
    • +3 named Pixie-Lou
    • +3 named Pixie-Rose
  • 2009: 33 baby girls named Pixie (rank: 982nd)

I also spotted 5 baby girls named Renesmee, 4 named Coraline and 4 named Io.

The most insightful article I’ve seen about this batch of names so far is Ed West’s “Britain’s divided nation is revealed in our baby names.” Some snippets:

  • “…the annually-published list does show that, for the first time in nine centuries, English people are easily identifiable by class solely by their name, since most names in the 2011 list have strong class biases either way.”
  • “Social mobility will be achieved only when we all give our children the same names.”

Have you spotted anything interesting or surprising on the England and Wales 2011 list?

Source: Baby names in England and Wales: 2011

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

Popular baby names in England and Wales (UK), 2008

Flag of the United Kingdom
Flag of the United Kingdom

Ready for some rankings?

Here are England and Wales’ top 20 girl names and top 20 boy names of 2008:

Girl Names

  1. Olivia, 5,325 baby girls
  2. Ruby, 4,931
  3. Emily, 4,881
  4. Grace, 4,775
  5. Jessica, 4,672
  6. Chloe, 4,605
  7. Sophie, 4,380
  8. Lily, 4,047
  9. Amelia, 3,440
  10. Evie, 3,281
  11. Mia, 3,121
  12. Ella, 3,042
  13. Charlotte, 2,939
  14. Lucy, 2,876
  15. Megan, 2,515
  16. Ellie, 2,505
  17. Isabelle, 2,460
  18. Isabella, 2,424
  19. Hannah, 2,335
  20. Katie, 2,324

Boy Names

  1. Jack, 8,010 baby boys
  2. Oliver, 7,417
  3. Thomas, 6,062
  4. Harry, 6,008
  5. Joshua, 5,716
  6. Alfie, 5,566
  7. Charlie, 5,291
  8. Daniel, 5,191
  9. James, 5,170
  10. William, 5,169
  11. Samuel, 4,624
  12. George, 4,214
  13. Joseph, 3,764
  14. Lewis, 3,482
  15. Ethan, 3,451
  16. Mohammed, 3,442
  17. Dylan, 3,373
  18. Benjamin, 3,275
  19. Alexander, 3,215
  20. Jacob, 3,127

Intriguingly, the name Honey ranked 190th on the girls’ list. A whopping 279 baby girls got the name. In contrast, just 90 U.S. baby girls were named Honey that year, and the name has never once cracked the U.S. top 1,000. I wonder what accounts for the relative popularity of Honey overseas.

Finally, here are some of the names that were used less often in 2008…

Uncommon Girl NamesUncommon Boy Names
Bluebell (20 baby girls), Primrose (17), Temperance (13), Breeze (11), Cleopatra (11), Sorrel (11), Tigerlily (9), Tirion (9), Comfort (8), Peaches (8), Pebbles (8), Beyonce (7), Miami (7), Zinnia (7), Godiva (6), Mercades (5), Panashe (5), Tulip (5), Wednesday (5), Magenta (4), Boadicea (3), Cayenne (3), Kimora-Lee (3), Plum (3), Rejoice (3)Spike (23 baby boys), Willoughby (22), Ziggy (20), Ptolemy (19), Zidane (13), Zinedine (12), Kal-El (10), Hendrix (9), Humphrey (8), Elan (6), Gruff (6), Legend (6), Achilles (5), Amen (5), Bright (5), Jesse-James (5), Tennyson (5), Darlington (4), James-Dean (4), Courage (3), Freedom (3), Messiah (3), Remus (3), Riquelme (3), Seven (3)

What are your thoughts on these rankings/names?

Sources: Office for National Statistics, England & Wales Baby Names

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

How did 9/11 affect the baby name Mohammed?

Qur'an

The September 11 terrorist attacks, which took place in the northeastern United States in 2001, qualify as the deadliest terrorist attack in world history. They were orchestrated by the militant Islamist group al-Qaeda, led by Osama Bin Laden.

One “consequence of the fear and suspicion that followed” the attacks was a spike in the number of hate crimes against Muslim Americans.

Did the event, and the ensuing Islamophobia, have any influence on the usage of the baby name Mohammed — the name of the Islamic prophet — among American Muslims?

Let’s check the data. Here are all of the variants of Mohammed I could find, and the total number of U.S. baby boys given each variant per year from 2000 to 2004:

20002001200220032004
Mohamed498541453480484
Mohammed430491386349349
Mohammad508470422395340
Muhammad303339284306296
Mohamad99125888794
Muhammed8357514868
Mouhamed1525221918
Muhamed2412271518
Muhamad13713.8
Mouhamad6.685
Mohamud5.896
TOTAL1,9842,0671,7601,7161,686

So it seems that the attacks did indeed have a negative effect on the usage of the name among American Muslims, though only for a few years.

Other Muslim names were also used less often after 9/11, including the names of some of the hijackers — names like Abdulaziz, Khalid, and Ahmed. Speaking of Islamist jihadists…the baby names Islam and Jihad likewise saw drops in usage.

Sources:

Image: Adapted from Qur’an 6643102 (public domain) by Alexander Cook (U.S. DoD)