Mohammed likely to top boys' names list by year-end

At least it is a move away from what I (somewhat unkindly) call "Tank Engine Names", e.g. Thomas, Gordon, Henry, James, Oliver!

But when most kids are called that, are schools going to have to return to surnames? If you say "Mohammed, come here please to have your maths checked" to a class in which 50% or more are called Mohammed, it is going to be a bit of a problem! Very handy for teachers with poor memories! Just say the name and point!

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Mohammed likely to top boys' names list by year-end

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/afp/20070606/tuk-lifestyle-britain-name-mohammed-a7ad41d.html

Though official records from the Office for National Statistics list the spelling Mohammed 23rd in its yearly analysis of the top 3,000 names given to children, when all the different spellings of the name are taken into account, it ranks second, only behind Jack, according to The Times.

There are various different spellings of the name because when it is transliterated into English from Arabic, families spell it as closely to their own pronunciations as possible.

In total, 5,991 baby boys were given some version of the name Mohammed, with 6,928 baby boys named Jack.

Thomas was third with 5,921 names, with Joshua and Oliver rounding out the top five.

According to The Times, if the growth of the name Mohammed continues -- it rose by 12 percent last year -- the name will take the top spot by the end of this year.