Mohammed is now the most popular name for baby boys in Britain ahead of Jack and Harry

Jack Doyle Daily Mail 10/27/2010 20:05

Mohammed has become the most popular name for newborn 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.