Why Ollie and Harrison mean Mohammed isn’t the No 1 name

MOHAMMED is not the most popular boy’s name in the country, the official in charge of compiling the statistics said yesterday.

It is usually thought that the Muslim name is most common for babies when all its variant spellings, including Muhammad, are added together.

But there are more Olivers if the shortened version, Ollie, is included – and more Harrys if Harrison, Harris and other variants are thrown in, Nick Stripe of the Office for National Statistics revealed.

Speaking on the eve of the publication of the list of the top baby names for 2018, Mr Stripe said: ‘Every year, many commentators conclude that if you add up all the different ways of spelling Muhammad, it would be the most popular boy’s name. There is a clear rationale for doing so, as each spelling simply reflects an alternative transliteration of the name from different languages into English.’

But the ONS did not count different spellings of the same root as one name because it would not be objective, he said. In 2017, there were 6,259 Olivers and 788 Ollies born in England and Wales, a total of 7,047. This outnumbered the ,691 Muhammads, 8 7 Mohammads, and 1,982 Mohammeds, a total of 6,510. ‘You can try the same with all the Harrys, Harrises and Harrisons,’ Mr Stripe said. ‘Some might even want to add in all the Henrys as well. Prince Harry is called Henry, after all.’

Babies are now named after characters from Downton Abbey, Peaky Blinders or Game Of Thrones, he said. Even Mohammed is in decline as Muslim parents join the trend of picking more individual names.