Muhammad Is Now Britain's Most Popular Baby Boy Name
Britain's most popular baby boy name offers a revealing look into it's growing Muslim population. More than 8,000 boys born last year were named some variation of Muhammad. The United Kingdom's Office of National Statistics declared Oliver as the top pick of 2013 with 6,949 boys sporting the name. However a closer look at the complete list showed that parents selected several spellings of Muhammad for their sons, making the Muslim prophet's name more popular.
There are 18 variations of Muhammad featured on the 2013 list of baby boy names. The most common variations were Muhammad, with 3,499 namesakes, Mohammed,,with 2,887, and Mohammad, with 1,059.
This revelation is a reflection of the estimated 3 million Muslims now living in Great Britain.
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Pakistan, the world's second most populous Muslim country, is the number four country of origin for Britain's non-U.K. born resident population. Additionally nearly 5 percent of the population are followers of Islam, making it the nation's second largest religion after Christianity.
The list's top Christian boy name, Jacob, ranked number four with 5,126 children. Other Christian names listed among the 50 choices are Thomas, James, Joshua, Noah, Joseph, Samuel, Daniel, Isaac, Benjamin, Adam, Luke, Matthew and David.
