TEL AVIV – The most popular baby name in Israel in 2014 is Mohammed, according to a report released by the Central Bureau of Statistics on Sunday.
One out of every five Muslim boys born in Israel in 2014 was given the name of the Islamic prophet or its derivative, Ahmed.
The UK, another non-Muslim majority country, also listed Mohammed as the most popular baby name.
Arabs comprise 20 percent of Israel’s population, and the vast majority are Muslim.
Israel’s most popular Jewish name for a boy, and the second most popular name overall, in 2014 was Noam, with some 1,600 boys and 400 girls given the name.
The most popular Jewish name for a girl was Noa – which has remained one of the most popular names for a girl over the past 15 years. In the biblical book of Numbers, Noa was one of the five daughters of Zelophehad. In arguably the first act of feminism, she appealed to Moses to inherit her deceased father’s property in the Land of Israel.
Moses accepted Noa’s argument, setting a precedent for women’s inheritance rights, which until then had only applied to males
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