London:
427 years after William Shakespeare first wrote it in the great ‘tragedy’ Romeo and Juliet, England asks the essential question: ‘What is in a name?’ – And this time he wondered what meaning that question might have in another 42.7 years.
The UK Department of Statistics has revealed in its latest dataset that Mohammed is officially the most popular name for a newborn boy in England and Wales. By 2023, more than 4,600 babies had been registered with that name – the highest number for a boy. Mohammed was also the second most popular name in 2022.
Once the most popular name in Britain, Noah came a distant second this year, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
But staff at the British statistics office have been observing the trend for some time. Taking note of the most popular names in Britain, among other key statistics, it was found that Mohammed has been among the top 10 names for baby boys since 2016.
Adding to the cheers, the Department of Statistics said other spellings of the name Mohammed – namely Mohammed and Mohammad – also feature in the top 100 in England and Wales. This, the ONS explained, is because it regards each spelling as a separate name.
George, Harry and Charlotte are no longer popular names for children in Britain, the data showed, adding that Elizabeth and Charles are also not a favorite among young parents.
The nine other top names for newborn boys in Britain are: Noah, Oliver, George, Leo, Arthur, Luca, Theodore, Oscar and Henry.
For newborn girls, the ten most popular names in Britain in 2023 were: Olivia, Amelia, Isla, Lily, Freya, Ava, Ivy, Florence, Willow and Isabella. The top three names for girls remained unchanged for the third year in a row.
The statistics agency also said new entries to the list of top 100 baby names include Hazel, Lilah, Autumn, Nevaeh and Raya for girls, and Jax, Enzo and Bodhi for boys.
It was further noted that the time of year also played an important role in parents’ choice of name. In the month of December, Holly, Robyn and Joseph were more popular, while names like Summer and Autumn were popular in their respective seasons.
Data showed that pop culture also played a big role in how baby names were chosen. The most popular celebrity names for babies include music artists Billie Eilish and Lana Del Rey, baby names from the Kardashian-Jenner family like Reign and Saint, and movie stars like Margot Robbie and Cillian Murphy.
The statistics agency said the top names for boys are much more common than those for girls. This is because there are many more unique names for baby girls compared to baby boys. The collection of unique names for girls totals over 35,000, while the collection for boys, including variations of the same name, stands at 29,560.