What is the most popular boys’ (and girls’) name for new babies in Britain?
Sections of the British media have been excited about this question over the last few days.
Various Right-wing newspapers have asserted that the most popular name is Mohammed and variants of it and implied that Britain is somehow being taken over by Muslims. More liberal sections of the media have reacted in ways which arguably have demonstrated an excess of political correctness, assuring us that Mohammed is far from being the most popular boys’ name for new babies. So what are the facts?
The story originally arose from an analysis by a web site which only captures a proportion of new names. The most official source for baby names is the Office of National Statistics which publishes comprehensive data each year. For the year 2013 for England & Wales, the most popular boys’ name is given as Oliver. For interest, the most popular girls’ name is Amelia.
But, as i point out on my web page describing naming practices around the world:
“It should be noted that the Office of National Statistics (ONS) produces its ranking of the popularity of names using the exact spelling of the name given at birth registration. If one combines the numbers for names with very similar spellings, a very different picture is revealed. For boys, combining the occurrence of Mohammed, Muhammad, Mohammad & Muhammed plus eight other spellings of the name would put it in first place – a reflection of the changing ethnicity of the British population. Similarly, if one combines the occurrence of Isabella, Isabelle, Isabel and Isobel, one would find the name top of the girls’ list and, if one took Lily and Lilly together, the name would come third.”
Now some sections of the media have suggested that it is ‘wrong’ to group together all the different spellings of Mohammed, but such a grouping seems to me to be fair enough. After all, it is the same name referring to the same figure (the Prophet) and essentially pronounced the same and the different spellings simply come from different transliterations from different languages, especially South Asian languages, or even from the same language (usually Arabic).
Some commentators have pointed out that many ‘English’ names come in different variants and could reasonably be grouped together to assess popularity – but this is debatable. It is interesting that these days the familiar form of some boys’ names rather than the original version is often preferred by parents – Jack instead of John, Harry instead of Harold, Charlie instead of Charles, Alfie instead of Alfred, Archie instead of Archibold. But these are deliberate choices by parents and the alternative versions are not only spelt differently but pronounced differently – which is the intention. Such choices are not the same as different transliterations of the name Mohammed.
So what is wrong with asserting that Mohammed is now the most popular boys’ name? Of itself, this is not an offensive statement – although I accept that it can be presented by sections of the media in an Islamophobic manner. The reality is than only 4.4% of the UK population is Muslim and the only reason that Mohammed comes top on some baby name charts is that Muslim families have a substantial preference to use one particular boys’ name while the rest of the population tends to be more variable with their choice of name.
There is nothing wrong or right about this; it is not a cause for fear or pleasure; it is just a fact.