Muhammad topped the list of most popular boy’s baby names in England and Wales last year, knocking Noah from first place. The figures, released by the Office for National Statistics this morning, show that Muhammad was the most common name given to newborn boys last year; 4,661 boys were named Muhammad with 4,382 Noahs. The year before there were 4,586 Noahs and 4,177 Muhammads.
When you analyse the names by different spelling, though, it becomes clear just how popular the name is. The spellings Muhammad, Mohammed, Mohammad and Mohamed combine for a total of 7,730 baby boys in 2023. That’s just over one in every 40 births.
While today’s news perhaps seems a milestone demographic change in Britain’s story, it’s really nothing new. When you combine the various spellings of Muhammad it’s been the most popular name for nearly 16 years – it’s just that this year is the first that a single spelling has come out on top.
As migration has increased and as the fertility rate for British-born mothers has decreased, demographics have changed and one in ten babies are now born into muslim households according to census data.
For girls, the most popular names were Olivia, Amelia and Isla – unchanged from 2022. Olivia was the top name in five out of nine English regions as well as being top in Wales, while Muhammad was the top name in four of nine regions but only achieved the 63rd spot in Wales.
Names appearing in the top 100 for the first time, according to the ONS, included Hazel, Lilah, Autumn, Nevaeh and Raya for girls and for boys: Jax, Enzo and Bohdi. Celebrities had an impact too with increases in Billies, Lanas and Reigns (a name shared by one of the Kardashian children).
Interestingly, girls tend to have much more diverse names with statisticians registering 35,000 unique girls names compared with just 29,560 for boys – hence increasing the prevalence of each boy’s name.
Britain is changing, but it is not changing quickly – Muhammad’s spelling have been the top name for over a decade – and today’s figures show that it’s always worth digging below the top lines in any data release.
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