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If taken together the various different spellings of Mohammed make the name the second most common name in England and Wales - and by far the most popular in both London and the West Midlands. Jack was the most chosen name for boys for the 13th year running but is being pushed hard by Mohammed and its various alternative spellings which are expected to reach the top spot soon.
Olivia was the top name for new-born girls in 2008, replacing the previous year’s favourite Ruby, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics.
The ONS was criticised for treating the various spellings of Mohammed as different names. It only published the top 100 names for each sex which meant figures were only released for three variations of Mohammed.
Mohammed was placed 16th with 3,423, Muhammad 37th with 2,068 and Mohammad 65th with 1,100.
Figures for five other alternative spellings - Muhammed (496), Mohamed (428), Mohamad (40), Muhamed (11) and Mohammod (10) - were later released to the Daily Telegraph.
That made a total of 7,576 and put Mohammed and its alternative spellings ahead of the official second place name, Oliver, of whom there were 7,413. There were 8,007 Jacks.
In London 724 baby boys were given the name Mohammed, traling behind 844 Daniels. But adding the various other spellings of Mohammed would more than double its total and make it by far the most popular name in the capital.
The same is true of the West Midlands where the specific spelling Mohammed (751) was only just behind Jack (768) and the Yorkshire and Humber region where Mohammed (607) was fourth behind Jack (854).
Controversy over the ranking of Mohammed follows a similar episode in Holland where official statistics also counted the different spellings as separate names. That artificially kept the name of Islam’s founder outside the Dutch top 20.
Figures later obtained by a magazine there showed that Mohammed and its variations in fact constituted the most popular name in the country’s four biggest cities.
Douglas Murray, Director of the Centre for Social Cohesion, said: “It’s pretty disingenuous to put out these different spellings. The names are pretty much spelled in the same way.”
The official annual ranking of baby names in 2008 also showed that the boy's name Riley and girl's name Lexi were the fastest-rising among the top 100.
Riley rose 24 places to number 33 in the boys’ list while Lexi, a shortened form of Alexandra, was up 40 places to number 73.
Other names that became significantly more popular included Alfie, Logan and Theo for boys and Ava, Summer, Isla and Matilda for girls.
Notable seasonal variations included the name Holly, which averaged 22nd place for the year as a whole, but rose to become the most popular girls' name of all during the month of December.
Jack was the top name for boys in Wales and in six of the English regions. The top name for girls in Wales was Ruby, while Olivia headed the list in four English regions.
There were 708,711 live births in England and Wales during 2008, with 26,815 different boys' names and 34,043 different girls' names registered.
Top 10 Official Boys' Names:
1 Jack 2 Oliver 3 Thomas 4 Harry 5 Joshua 6 Alfie 7 Charlie 8 Daniel 9 James 10 William
Top 10 Official Girls' Names:
1 Olivia 2 Ruby 3 Emily 4 Grace 5 Jessica 6 Chloe 7 Sophie 8 Lily 9 Amelia 10 Evie
