MOSCOW, December 1 (Sputnik) – First seen in the top 100 boys' names in the 1950s, Mohammad has been gaining popularity in the UK ever since, although the name Oliver remains number one as most popular name for the boys, reports The Guardian.
The name Mohammed has become a topic of debate due to its spelling variations. The name is written in multiple formats with some of them being: Muhammad, Mohammed, Mohammad, Muhammet etc.
The debate arose when Baby Center research combined the spellings of 3,499 Muhammads, 2,887 Mohammeds and 1,059 Mohammads, giving a total of 7,445 babies. That number apparently exceeds “Oliver”, but then some have argued that if those are to be taken as the same name, then so should British variations such as Oliver and Ollie, James and Jim, which would overtake Mohammed in all its incarnations, as reports Independent UK.
Arabic experts say that this comparison is a false one, because the differences with Mohammed arise only from the transliteration from Arabic into Roman characters.
A spokesperson from the Arab British Center, which works to improve understanding of the Arab world in the UK, said that albeit their variation, Mohammed is unquestionably the same name.
“Because Arabic is a phonetic language, it means that when people spell it out the letters can’t directly represent the sounds so you end up with different vowels and things like that," she said.
But according to The Guardian, It’s a popular myth that Mohammed is Britain’s most popular boy’s name, because these numbers came from a survey and not official national statistics.
The BabyCentre.co.uk names are simply a sample based on 56,157 members of the site who gave birth in 2014. The website has ignored that there are comprehensive statistics available from official bodies, although only up to 2013. Those figures show Muhammad was the 16th most popular boys name in England and Wales and the 52nd most popular in Scotland.
The names chosen by a self-selecting group of parents will probably show more about the demographics of the users of that website than the overall trends, reports The Guardian.
Muhammad might become the most popular name in the country at some point. That’s less to do with immigration than cultural trends: over the last couple of decades most parents have pursued a wider variety of names for their children while Muhammad remains a favorite name for parents of Islamic backgrounds.
