'Mohammad' second most popular boys' name in Britain

London, Dec 20 (UNI) The name 'Mohammad' is now the second most popular boys' name in multicultural Britain.

The name to top the list was 'Jack', which has been the most popular boys' name in the country for the last 13 years now.

In a reflection of the increasing influence of Islam, figures showed the total of British children named after the Muslim prophet Mohammad came to 6,347 babies, taking into account eight spellings of the name.

The other spellings were 'Muhammad', 'Mohammed', 'Muhammed', 'Mohamed', 'Mohamad', 'Muhamed' and 'Mohammod', the Daily Mail reported.

Although Jack topped the list with 6,772 babies, that figure fell 156 from last year's, meaning if the trends were repeated next year, 'Mohammad' and its variant spellings would be the most popular choice in Britain and Wales.

The last national census in 2001 put the British Muslim population at 1.6 million, but this will have grown substantially in the past five years.

The official figures from the Office for National Statistics confirmed Grace was the most popular name given to girls, beating last year's top name, Olivia, into third place.

UNI