Mohammed is now the most popular name for baby boys in Britain

It shot up from third the previous year, overtaking Jack, which had topped the list for the past 14 years but was relegated to third spot. Olivia topped the list for little girls for the second year in a row, behind Ruby and Chloe. A total of 7,549 newborns were given 12 variations of the Islamic prophet Mohammed’s name last year, such as Muhammad and Mohammad.

The second most popular boy’s name, Oliver, was given to 7,364 babies.Harry and Alfie came in fourth and fifth place respectively. The official list, which covers all births in 2009 in England and Wales, has ­Mohammed at number 16 but this does not include the many different spellings, which are all ranked separately. When they are added in, Mohammed zooms all the way up to top spot for the first time.

In order of popularity, the variant ­spellings used during the year were: Muhammad, Mohammad, Muhammed, Mohamed, Mohamad, Muhamed, Mohammod, Mahamed, Muhamad, Mahammed and Mohmmed.

There are still other possible spellings but these were not used for births in England and Wales in 2009. Regionally, the single spelling of Mohammed came top of the list for the West Midlands. Since 1999 the number of babies called Mohammed, however spelled, has increased by more than half. In 1999 the name was given to 4,579 newborns.

Going even further back, the single spelling Mohammed appeared at 73 in the list in 1964 and 87th in 1944. Some names appeared to have been given a popularity boost by celebrity association. There were 282 boys called Brooklyn, 78 called Romeo and 73 called Cruz – sharing their names with the sons of David and Victoria Beckham.

The top 100 names lists include six new entries for boys: Aiden, Arthur, Frederick, Jude, Stanley and Austin. The girls’ list had just three new entries: Heidi, Mya and Sara.

Big risers were Lucas, up 19 places since 2008 to 17th in the boys list. Archie climbed 11 places to 20 while Noah jumped 13 places to 32. For girls, Maisie is increasingly popular, up 29 places to 34.

However, Emma, which not long ago was among the nation’s favourite names, dropped ten places to become the 41st most common name given to girls. The figures also revealed the continued resurgence of names popular in the early 20th Century. Evie was the tenth most popular girls name last year, up 157 places since 1999.

Ruby has seen a similar rise in popularity – it was not even in the top 100 in the late 1990s. Its return has been linked to the hit song of the same name by the Kaiser Chiefs and Charlotte Church choosing it for her daughter in 2007.

Overall, the popularity of the most common names has changed little, with the top tens for both boys and girls remaining almost identical. There were 706,248 children born in England and Wales last year.


/The Daily Mail/