If you live in America, you may read about an unknown suspect or " hero" who wishes to remain anonymous identified only as John Smith or John Doe. In one of the Arab countries, "John Smith" would be named Muhammad. Muhammad is the central Islamic prophet. In his book, "The 100: A Ranking of The Most Influential Persons in History," Michael Hartwho is a Christiannamed Muhammad as one of the most influential figures in world history.

Today Muslims account for about 3 percent of British population. That means about 1.5 million Muslims; and the birthrate for Muslims in Britain almost three times higher than non-Muslims. Muhammad, which means highly praised or praise be unto him, is the 2nd most popular boys name overall in Britain, second only to "Jack." Some predictions suggest Muhammad will overtake the 1st spot by the end of 2008 according to "The Times."

Social scientists attribute the rise in popularity of the name Muhammad in Britain in part to the growing number of young Muslim couples in Britain now having families, in addition to the desire to name Muslim children after the Prophet

Tradition has it that at the age of about 40 years old, Muhammad received a call from Allah (God) to recite the words that are now contained in the Koran (or Qur'an), Islam's holy book (in about 560 A.D.). As a sign of respect, many Muslims, even today, write "pbuh" (praise be unto him) following the prophet's name or say it aloud after his name when speaking of Muhammad or other prophets.

Muhammad Anwar is a Professor of Ethnic Relations at Warwick University. He explains the large number of babies with the popular name, "Muslim parents like to have something that shows a link with their religion or with the Prophet." Britain's official names register shows the name with the spelling "Mohammed" is 23rd place. However, when using the top 3,000 names provided by The Office for National Statistics (ONS) Muhammad, including all 14 variations of the spelling of the name, comes out at number two.

The name Muhammad is the transliteration of an Arabic name that comes from the passive participle from the root of H-M-D ("praise"), meaning "the praised one." Other Arabic names bearing a resemblance include Mahmud, Ahmed, Hamid, and al-Hamid, one of the 99 names of God meaning "The Blesser," according to yobserver.com. They further indicate, "The name Muhammad is also transliterated as Mohammad, Mohammed, Mohamed, Muhammed, Mahommed, Mehmed, Mehmet, Mahomet. Muhammad is also a very popular surname, ranking 4,194 out of 88,799 for people of all ages in the 1990 U.S. Census.

The sixth edition of The Columbia Encyclopedia (2000)contends, "Muhammad is "probably the most common given name" in the world, including variations. It is estimated that more than 15 million people in the world bear the name Muhammad." Additionally, yobserver.com reports a man named Muhammad in Great Britain "is most likely to be aged between 25 and 34 and to have an average salary of 25,000. The leading name for girls born to Muslim parents in 2006 was Aisha, after Muhammad's wife."

Learn more about this author, Mary Moss.
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