Muhammad, the Most Popular Baby Name in London

Muhammad was the most popular name for baby boys in English regions London, the West Midlands, and Yorkshire and the Humber in 2017, government statistics show, with spelling variations in the name taking it to first place across England and Wales.

Officially Oliver remains the most popular name for newborn boys across the country, with 6,259 born last year. However, it is pushed into second place by Muhammad when slight spelling variations including Mohammed and Mohammad are included, which achieve 6,510 newborns between them.

The one-letter differences in spelling of the name between the three top-100 variants stem from the transliteration of مُحمّد‎ from Arabic into the Latin alphabet, which can be imprecise.

Even alone, Muhammad was the 10th most popular name in England and Wales last year, having slipped two places since 2016 but rising 28 places since 2007.

Taking the three English translations of the same Arabic name as one has left Muhammad the most popular boy’s name in England and Wales every year since 2011, as previously reported by Breitbart London.

The official top name Oliver also has a contraction, Ollie, listed at number 86. Counted together, Oliver and nickname Ollie account for 7,047 boys in 2017.

Olivia, the feminised variant of Oliver was the most popular girl’s name in 2017, followed by Amela, Isla, and Ava, all of which have risen steeply in popularity.

The statistics, released by the Office of National Statistics annually in September, also broke down top names by region.