Is Muhammad the most popular male baby's name in Great Britain?
British website BabyCentre caused a huge flap with its recent release of statistics showing that the Islamic name has leaped to the top of the male baby list of favorite names.
However,
the Daily Mirror takes serious umbrage at the claim, noting that only if you combine various spelling of the name — Muhammad, Mohammad and Mohammed — does the Islamic name makes it into the top 10 of male baby's names for the first time, but it's still not in first place.
The Mirror notes that using data from the Office of National Statistics (ONS), there were 698,512 babies born in 2013, while the BabyCentre statistics were based on just 56,157 babies born to BabyCentre members in 2014, or "likely less than 8 percent."
Still leading the single-spelling list of male baby's names are the old, reliable British standbys Oliver, Jack, Harry and Jacob, with Muhammad coming in at No. 15. Mohammed is at No. 23 and Mohammad at No. 57,
the Huffington Post reports.
Using multiple varieties of the same name, Mohammad variations come in at No. 4, trailing Harry/Henry, Jack/Jake and Oliver/Ollie.
With girls' names, the BabyCentre reports, Islamic name Nur makes it into the top 100 names for the first time, while the use of Maryam has increased. For the first time in the top 100, Arabic names Omar, Ali and Ibrahim made the list, showing "there is a surge in Arabic names generally," BabyCentre reports.
Sarah Redshaw, managing editor for BabyCentre, said, "With the increase of said Arabic names plus Aarav, an Indian boys’ name, the top 100 shows the ever-increasing diversity of the UK today."
ONS statistics show that while births to native-born women in England and Wales were up 18 percent in 2011, 26 percent of babies born in England were to foreign-born mothers — 5.58 percent from Libyans, 4.84 percent from mothers from Guinea and 4.32 percent from mothers from Algeria.
The number has increased from just 16 percent in the 2001 census.
"The decline in popularity of more traditional names may be due to the higher birth rate among second generation immigrants who tend to have large families, as well as cultural traditions within different migrant groups," BabyCentre noted.
From 2001-2012, out of a 4.7 million population increase in Great Britain, 3.9 million were immigrants, Migrant Watch reports. Net migration for 2014 was roughly 260,000.
Sir Andrew Green, chairman of
Migration Watch, commented, "It is now undeniable that the massive scale of net migration has been the main cause of our population growth and that, in the future, our population growth is likely to be almost entirely due to migration.
"The reality is that even if net migration is bought down to 165,000 a year, we will, in the next 25 years, have to build the equivalent of 10 cities the size of Birmingham, amounting to almost twice the population of Scotland. This would place enormous stress on our already creaking infrastructure and on our environment and it would also change the nature of British society forever."
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