As exclusively reported by Breitbart London last week, Muhammed has been crowned Britain’s most popular boys name in figures published by the Office of National Statistics (ONS) today. The name of the Muslim prophet beat Oliver as the most popular boys name chosen by parents in Britain in 2013.
As a result of the way the statistics are put together, the name does not appear to have won, as the ONS classifies each of the different spellings as a different entry on the list. This means that “Muhammad” came in 15th with 3,499 children but “Mohammed” was 23rd with 2,887 and “Mohammad” was 57th with 1059 given the name.
As a result the top three spellings alone accounted for the names of 7,445 boys, easily beating the second most popular name Oliver which got just 6,949. Also the statistics are only published for the top 100 names, so the even more obscure spellings of Mohammed are likely to push the total even higher.
News that Mohammed is the most popular boys name in Britain was first exclusively reported on Breitbart London following a leak at the ONS last week. At the time, Mohammed was already the most popular boys name in London by some considerable margin.
The scale of the result is likely to leave the public shocked, although much of the mainstream media are expected to focus on the official ONS results. As a result, they will report that Mohammed only came in 15th, ignoring the multiple entries. In previous years, media outlets in Britain have not aggregated the various spellings and have only published the top 20 names, which makes it seem like traditional names remain dominant.
Muhammad is so popular as a name because the three million Muslims in Britain tend to like to name at least one of their sons after the prophet. This makes the name much more popular amongst Muslim families than any name is amongst Christians.
In 2002, the Muhammad spelling of the name was the 61st most popular boys name in Britain. In the same period the number of Muslims in Britain has doubled.
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