Elham Asaad Buaras

Muhammad is the most popular boys’ name in London [692], the North West [860], Yorkshire and The Humber [583], and the West Midlands [694], and the seventh most popular boys’ name in England and Wales overall last year, according to figures released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on August 26.

The ONS said many commentators had concluded if various spellings of a name, such as Mohammad, Mohammed and Mohamed, were added together it would be the most popular name for boys in England and Wales.

However, the ONS does not do this because it would have to do the same for all other names, for example combining the different versions of Oliver, such as Ollie, Oli, Oliwer and Olly.

The highest proportion of boys given the same name in any given area was in Pendle, Lancashire, where 13.1 per cent of boys born were named Muhammad.
The Muslim name Ibrahim also entered the 2019 top 100 boys’ names.

Oliver was overall the most popular name for boys in England and Wales followed by George, Noah, Arthur and Harry. But despite Oliver being the top name, it only ranked first in the East Midlands, the East of England, the South West and Wales.

Meanwhile, Olivia remained the most popular name for girls in England and Wales, while Aisha slipped out of the top 100. Olivia was followed by Amelia, Isla, Ava and Mia.

The ONS said the choice of baby names was heavily influenced by popular culture.
Baby girls named Dua [Arabic for invocation] after the British Kosovar Albanian singer Dua Lip doubled last year compared with 2017 when the singer had her first UK number one.