--- title: Baby Names: Muhammad is Britain's Most Popular Choice for Baby Boy description: BabyCentre also reveals that parents have been heavily influenced by celebrity name choices canonical: https://time.com/3611399/britain-muhammad-popular-baby-names/ author: Naina Bajekal article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-12-01T11:33:38.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:14:53.669Z og:title: Baby Names: Muhammad is Britain's Most Popular Choice for Baby Boy og:description: BabyCentre also reveals that parents have been heavily influenced by celebrity name choices og:url: https://time.com/3611399/britain-muhammad-popular-baby-names/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Baby Names: Muhammad is Britain's Most Popular Choice for Baby Boy twitter:description: BabyCentre also reveals that parents have been heavily influenced by celebrity name choices twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Muhammad Becomes Britain's Most Popular Name for a Baby Boy > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=d740ce76-8da0-4aa4-905d-00b229cd8429&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1)  by [Naina Bajekal](https://time.com/author/naina-bajekal/)  ## Naina Bajekal Bajekal was executive editor and international editor at TIME. Dec 1, 2014 11:33 AM UTC  by [Naina Bajekal](https://time.com/author/naina-bajekal/)  ## Naina Bajekal Bajekal was executive editor and international editor at TIME. Dec 1, 2014 11:33 AM UTC The website BabyCentre UK has [revealed](http://www.babycentre.co.uk/a25011625/top-baby-boy-names-2014) that, rising 27 places from last year, the name Muhammad has topped the list of the top 100 boys’ names of 2014 (when alternate spellings such as Mohammed are included). It is closely followed by Oliver and Jack, but royal names have fallen in popularity, with George actually declining in popularity since the birth of Prince George to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge last year. Sarah Redshaw, managing editor of BabyCentre, told [_The Times_](http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/life/families/article4283497.ece)_:_ “Kate and William have a lot of attention and parents don’t want to always be asked if they named their baby after Prince George.” Data shows a rising trend in Arabic names, with Omar, Ali, and Ibrahim appearing in the chart, and Nur jumping straight to number 29 in the girls’ top 100\. But Biblical names such as Jacob, Noah and Gabriel for boys, and Abigail, Elizabeth and Eve for girls continue to endure in popularity. The [influence of popular culture on parents’ choices ](http://www.babycentre.co.uk/a25011623/most-popular-baby-name-trends-2014)is also clear: _Game of Thrones_ is likely responsible for Emilia entering the charts at 53, while _Frozen_‘s Elsa makes an appearance in the top 100\. _Breaking Bad_‘s Skyler, Jesse and Walter have also soared up the charts since the series ended last September. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3611399/britain-muhammad-popular-baby-names/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3611399/britain-muhammad-popular-baby-names/"},"headline":"Muhammad Becomes Britain's Most Popular Name for a Baby Boy","datePublished":"2014-12-01T11:33:38.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:14:53.669Z","description":"The website BabyCentre also reveals that parents have been heavily influenced by celebrity name choices","url":"https://time.com/3611399/britain-muhammad-popular-baby-names/","keywords":["Newsfeed","society","United Kingdom"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Naina Bajekal","jobTitle":"Bajekal was executive editor and international editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/naina-bajekal/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3611399/britain-muhammad-popular-baby-names/","name":"Muhammad Becomes Britain's Most Popular Name for a Baby Boy"}}]}] ```