Most popular bay names in the UK - Is Noah particularly religious?

Someone on another thread was asking about the name Sonny. It used to be used as a nickname for Solomon and was popular in the Jewish community.

This is an interesting thread. I tend to think of boys’ names as being either the name of a king or an apostle. Noah / Adam / Ezra / Isaac are a bit too Old Testament for my taste - and I suspect will go out of fashion.

Similarly, I used to meet lots of boys called Oscar or Oliver but I no longer do (at least in my area).

Every decade has a trendy OT name. Noah has been the biggie recently, Ezra is the new kid on the block. In the 90s it was Joshua and Jacob. Benjamin in the 80s.

But I wouldn't assume the parents of your average Noah were particularly religious.

In Scotland, Jessie has for centuries been used as a nickname for Janet, which is one of the very many variations of Joan/Jane/Jean.

Nothing to do with Jessica, which was a name first used (so far as it is known) by Shakespeare, for the daughter of his Jewish character Shylock. It is thought that Shakespeare based the name on the 16th cent English pronunciation of the Jewish female name Iscah (which was Jeshca): www.behindthename.com/name/jessica

In date order, Jewish, Christian and Muslim people all respect the ancient Hebrew scriptures, known in English as the Old Testament. So what we call in the UK "Old Testament" characters such as Noah or Jesse or Miriam or Hannah appear in the religious literature of all three faiths, but spelled differently, according to local language conventions.

I'm sure you could see my comment was in reply to 'Jessie' not being popular due to being blasphemic. I did assume it wasn't the diminutive of Jessica being discussed, yes. As a child of the 80s, I'm aware that for girls Jessica/Jess/Jessie was pretty popular.

Mohammed being ‘most popular’ is a bit of a misnomer given that this is really only prevalent in Muslim families. Noah is popular because of Americanisation and evangelical religious beliefs. British people just see these names as cool names, like Noah, Zachary, Isiah etc. without the religious connection.

I think Jesse is becoming relatively well used now. I know of two under 10 personally.

A lot of biblical names are just names that have been around a long time. Some do seem very biblical as you don’t hear them much but ones that are more mainstream no longer have a religious feel. Noah is one of those. I would include things like Joseph, Matthew, mark, Luke , John, Sarah, Rebekah, Mary in those (at least in the uk)

Do you mean Jesse? Grandson of Ruth and Boaz, father of David, ancestor of Jesus, according to the Bible. Hence the 'Tree of Jesse' stained glass windows found in many churches.

Like Jesse James, for instance. It does seem to have been more popular in the US historically - but then that is true of many Old Testament names.

Jessie is a diminutive of Jessica, or is sometimes considered the feminine form of Jesse.

Jessie was within the 40 most used names for girls in the UK at the beginning of the 20th century.

Edited after finding popularity figures.

I know quite a few muslim Noahs. The Arabic spelling is Nuh so most people just want the name to be pronounced properly.

I think there are a few reasons for particular names.

One is obviously religion.

I'm surprised by the comment about 'Noah' marking people out as 'Christian', to me, before it became popular, it would be a Jewish name.

But then you have culture, a friend who was married to a Palestinian didn't have middle names for her children as they had their own name, followed by their father's name and then their grandfather's name.

In some cultures the first child often has the name of a grand parent.

Some families have 'family names' so one pops up in every generation.

There is also history and or politics. After WWII I think there were more children given names like David and Daniel in Jewish communities that allow a child to, I hate this word, 'pass'.

I don't think there were many, if any, 'Neil's in the UK until the moon landings.

British children in WWI often had the name of a battle in their names if their father had fought there or if they had died in that battle.

There is a plethora of boys with strong biblical names in our wider family. Although many of us had a vaguely Christian upbringing (grandparents were regular church goers) none of us would consider ourselves religious/ practicing Christians.

We have the following: Noah, Elijah, Jacob, Isaac, Joseph.

I think of of the reasons for the rise in Old Testament names are the ones which are rising are generally soft sounding names. Jonah, Noah, Ezra etc. fit in with the trend for softer sounding boys names, while still being classic. I also think that fewer people mind using a name which might have been seen as too religious a generation ago because society is so secular now. I love Moses as a name, but am not religious at all and don’t see that as a problem. It’s really only a specific type of biblical name which is rising; I haven’t noticed a run of young Nebuchadnezzars running around!

I think one reason Noah is so well used is that it's popular across different sections of society. I know black Noah's (not sure what if anything their religion is) and Muslim Noah's. I don't actually know any white British or definitely Christian Noah's but I'm sure there are plenty out there.

Because they are popular names. I don’t think many people picking Ezrah or Joshua as a name really think about the deeper religious meaning much more than anything else.

I also think some old testament names might be used by Muslims as well, as some fearure in Islam too. They might pick an English spelling for Noah - not sure if that is allowed.

i’m in my fifties and had never came across a Noah in real life until relatively recently. There’s no Noah’s in my dc’s cohort (now early twenties) so it’s a newer trend than that. Possibly Chris Evans made it mainstream naming his son Noah in 2009.

Growing up, names like Matthew, James, Luke etc were fairly mainstream. However, if you came across a Jacob, Isaac, Zachary etc, you knew the parents would be Christians. These names seem more mainstream now.

If you counted up all the instances of Muhammad and all the instances of biblical names, biblical names would utterly dwarf Muhammad, it just doesn't appear that way in the top 100 because the variety of biblical names used is massive.

As others have said Muhammad is very commonly used as a first name, with middle or other names used day to day, which creates a flaw in the trend analysis, as you don't get to see the trends in what names boys named Muhammad are actually being referred to as.

It's also why the same pattern doesn't appear in the girls top 100.

I wouldn't necessarily assume a child named Muhammad or Noah was religious. Just that those names or common culturally in their community.

I did notice that Delilah was the top girls name for mothers under 25 though! Nice to see some variety from Olivia somewhere!

I believe, but I may be wrong, that it is standard in Muslim families to name your first born son Mohammed. Very often they are then known by a different name as Mohammed is such a common name for that reason.

When I was a child in the 80s Noah was a very uncommon name. Most bible names for boys were New Testament. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John were in every classroom along with David, Joshua, Christopher, James etc. I don’t think their parents were religious, there just was a much smaller pool of names, especially for boys. We had one boy in my school who called Jay and that was notable for being ‘American’.

I work in a school and we are full of Old Testament names now. Noah, Ezra, Elijah, Eli, Caleb, Abel. I can tell you for a fact, as I see the paperwork, that none of their parents are religious.

I think some people like traditional names but want them to sound fresh.

So in england, for the most part, traditional is bible or kings and saints. I think the bible inspiration goes in trends from Mathew, Mark, Luke and John to noah, samuel, Joshua but I am not sure it signifies much religious feeling.

Just people searching for long standing names that don't sound like thier dad or thier cousin.

You’re just noticing a specific type of religious names because they’re popular. David, Rebecca, Michael, Thomas, Sarah, John, Peter, Timothy, James, Sharon, Samuel, Joel, Jemima, Abigail, Nathan etc. are also ‘Bible’ names

My son is called Zachariah. I'm muslim and my husbands family are Christian so we wanted something to reflect this that would be easy to pronounce for both families.

When he was born, my family were pushing for his first name to be Mohammad, like pretty much every boy in our family (most muslim boys first names tend to be Mohammad and they are referred to usually by their middle names), but I just didn't think it went with his English surname and I'm glad I chose a classic name full of history that fits both cultures. If we had a girl, it would have been Zara.