Muhammad is now the most popular name for baby boys in England and Wales, overthrowing Noah in the official rankings.
According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), more than 4,600 boys were assigned the specific spelling of Mohammed in 2023. This was almost 500 more than in 2022.
The number of Noahs meanwhile fell from 4,586 to 4,382. Oliver, who came in third, also saw a slight decrease in prevalence.
It is the first time that only one spelling of the Islamic name has topped the charts, although when all more than 30 iterations are grouped together, it has been the most common for more than a decade, MailOnline’s analysis shows.
Olivia retained the top spot on the list of girls’ names for the eighth year in a row, followed by Amelia and Isla.
Every year the ONS analyzes the latest baby name data and reveals trends in how certain names have fallen out of favor or risen in popularity.
Analysts saw a rise in the number of parents choosing names like Margot and Cilian, in a trend believed to have been inspired by the ‘Barbenheimer’ phenomenon, which saw fans flock to cinemas to watch Margot Robbie in Barbie and Cilian Murphy in Oppenheimer.
The ONS also pointed to a “continuing increase” in the number of parents opting for reality TV Kardashian-Jenner family names such as Reign, Saint and Stormi in favor of traditional royal names.
There was also an increase in the number of hyphenated girls’ names.
Mohammed, a different spelling, entered the top 100 boys’ names for England and Wales 100 years ago, debuting at 91st place in 1924.
Its prevalence declined significantly leading up to and during World War II, but began to increase in the 1960s.
That particular version of the name was the only one to appear in the ONS top 100 from 1924 until Mohammad joined in the early 1980s.
Now the most popular of the trio, Muhammad first broke into the top 100 in the mid-1980s and has since experienced the fastest growth of all three iterations.
The name means ‘praiseworthy’ or ‘praiseworthy’ and comes from the Arabic word ‘hamad’ which means ‘praise’ and is shared with the founder of Islam, the Prophet Mohammed.
The increasing size of the UK’s Muslim communities, fueled by immigration, and the popularity of sports figures such as Mo Farah, Mohamed Salah and Muhammad Ali have likely led to this increase.
The ONS only provides statistics based on exact spelling and does not group names as some groupings are subjective and not straightforward.
For example, if multiple spellings were grouped under one umbrella name, Theodore (8th in 2023, 2,666) and Theo (11th in 2023, 2,489) would also rank above Noah.
The biggest gainer in the top 15 boys’ names was Luca, who jumped from 12th place last year with 2,625 names to 7th place this year with 3,195.
Henry also jumped from 13th (2,624) to 10th (2,490) last year.
Of the top 100 names given to boys, Bodhi saw the biggest single-year jump. It jumped from 637th to 100th.
New entries in the top 100 baby names include Hazel, Lilah, Autumn, Nevaeh and Raya for girls, and Jax, Enzo and Bodhi for boys.
On the girls’ side, 2,906 babies were born in Olivia in 2023. This was a decrease from 3,289 the year before.
Ava fell from 4th place in 2022 (2,293) to 6th place this time with 2,050 names, while Willow jumped into the top 10, finishing in ninth place with 1,833 names.
The only four-digit jump in the rankings for either gender came from Nova, which took 81st place after ranking 1,128th last year.
Elsewhere in the celebrity world, ONS data showed that Hollywood still has a huge influence on Britons’ naming habits.
With the releases of blockbusters Oppenheimer and Barbie last summer, Robbie in particular saw a big boost in the number of namesakes in England and Wales, almost doubling between February and July 2023.
Cillian also saw a rise from just 12 names in April to 31 in October – three months after the release of Christopher Nolan’s atomic bomb epic.
Musicians also have a proven track record of influencing the names of our children.
Last year was the year of Rita and Dua in parts of Britain.
This time, nine-time Grammy winner Billie Eilish saw her biggest earnings in years, after writing the title song for Margot Robbie’s Barbie movie, a major US tour and collaboration with Apple Films and a starring role in her first TV project. .
Although the name choices for A-list celebrities like Kim Kardashian are relatively low on the frequency scale, their popularity still seems to be growing.
Kim gave birth to North in 2013, Saint in 2015, Chicago in 2018 and Psalm-West in 2019 while with ex-husband Kanye West.
Her sister Kourtney gave birth to her daughter Reign in 2014 and the name’s popularity has skyrocketed since then.
Although general enthusiasm and support for the royal family has remained steady since the Queen’s death in September 2022, there appear to be fewer namesakes of the world’s most famous family in England and Wales.
George and Archie, sons of Prince William and his brother the Duke of Sussex, have both seen a sharp decline in terms of their popularity, with George falling below 4,000 in 2023 for the first time in almost a decade.
Camilla (63), after the Queen Consort, has remained largely flat over the same period as Lilibet (33)
Names are becoming more creative, and not just because the children name the namesake of a famous celebrity.
Ivy-Rose was the most popular hyphenated name in 2023, ranking 224th with 208 recordings.
Isla-Rose followed in 337th place with 128 names, while Ava-Mae (114 names) and Lily-Rose (111 names), possibly inspired by Lily-Rose Depp, followed.
On the boys’ side, Tommy-Lee is the highest ranked hyphenated name, but he only appears at number 439 with only 90 names.
Arlo-James with 44 names and Abdul-Hadi with 37 names follow in 754th and 857th place respectively.
The data also shows huge spikes around certain names at certain times of year.
Poppy jumped from 132 in September to 222 in November around Remembrance Sunday, while Summer almost quadrupled between April and October and Holly almost tripled from November to December.