Most common names in the world

[singlewhitefemale11]

I thought I'd share this as I found it interesting

forebears.io/earth/forenames

For anyone who cba to follow the link the top 10 most common names globally are-

1. MARIA
2. NUSHI
3. MOHAMMED
4. JOSE
5. MUHAMMAD
6. MOHAMED
7. WEI
8. MOHAMMAD
9. AHMED

10. YAN

the list goes on to name top 1000 globally.

Very interesting.

That is interesting.

I hadn't heard of Nushi, had to look that one up.

Interesting! I like that you can search for a name. :)

This is facinating, thanks @singlewhitefemale11! Like pp I'm surprised at Nushi being so high.

While I understand it's overall numbers rather than what's most popular currently, I'm also still surprised at some of the "English" ones that have made it into the worldwide top 100 (like Victor, Mark, Martin, Martha, Barbara, Angela, Marina etc) And who'd have thought Kevin would be in the top 200 names!

That’s fascinating! Thank you for sharing.

Kevin was incredibly popular in France in the 90s, randomly.

@IamnotwhouthinkIam

This is facinating, thanks *@singlewhitefemale11*! Like pp I'm surprised at Nushi being so high.

While I understand it's overall numbers rather than what's most popular currently, I'm also still surprised at some of the "English" ones that have made it into the worldwide top 100 (like Victor, Mark, Martin, Martha, Barbara, Angela, Marina etc) And who'd have thought Kevin would be in the top 200 names!

Well, Mark is biblical, so will be found wherever the Bible is. And, given the extent to which the British invaded and colonised other countries, I'm not surprised some English names are in the list.

Nushi! how interesting. What countries is Nushi popular in? I've never met a Nushi to my knowledge and can't think of any famous ones.

@Chicchicchicchiclana

Nushi! how interesting. What countries is Nushi popular in? I've never met a Nushi to my knowledge and can't think of any famous ones.

Hindi/Bengali/Indian origin. Means sweet, according to babycenter India.

www.babycenter.in/babyname/25046583/nushi

Yes @WineInTheWillows, I wasn't surprised about the super popular Biblical ones like John, Michael, Samuel, Mary, Elizabeth, Sarah etc being in the worldwide top 100; but as fellow biblical Mark and Martha haven't been as consistently popular in the UK top 100, it's interesting to me that they seem much more popular worldwide. But thinking about it, I've met a couple of Mark's from different Asian countries (though no Martha's personally) so maybe it's a name that works well in several languages.

@ZoyaTheDestroyer

That’s fascinating! Thank you for sharing.

Kevin was incredibly popular in France in the 90s, randomly.

And in Germany, but it's one that's made fun of and seen as trashy. Probably similar to how some Brits view the importing of American names.

@MimiDaisy11 yes, it's trashy in France too. Calling someone 'un Kevin' is an insult!

@IamnotwhouthinkIam Mark was very popular in the later 20th century in the UK - top 3 for most of the late 60s / early 70s and top ten until the mid-80s. There are so many middle-aged men named Mark at my work that they are referred to by their surnames!

Glad people have found it interesting as I have.

Here is the Top 100

1. Maria
2. Nushi
3. Mohammed
4. Jose
5. Muhammad
6. Mohamed
7. Wei
8. Mohammad
9. Ahmed

10. Yan 11. Ali 12. John 13. David 14. Li 15. Abdul 16. Ana 17. Ying 18. Michael 19. Juan 20. Anna 21. Mary 22. Jean 23. Robert 24. Daniel 25. Luis 26. Carlos 27. James 28. Antonio 29. Joseph 30. Hui 31. Elena 32. Francisco 33. Hong 34. Marie 35. Min 36. Lei 37. Yu 38. Ibrahim 39. Peter 40. Fatima 41. Aleksandr 42. Richard 43. Xin 44. Bin 45. Paul 46. Ping 47. Lin 48. Olga 49. Sri 50. Pedro 51. William 52. Rosa 53. Thomas 54. Jorge 55. Yong 56. Elizabeth 57. Sergey 58. Ram 59. Patricia 60. Hassan 61. Anita 62. Manuel 63. Victor 64. Sandra 65. Ming 66. Siti 67. Miguel 67. Emmanuel 69. Samuel 70. Ling 71. Charles 72. Sarah 73. Mario 74. Joao 75. Tatyana 76. Mark 77. Rita 78. Martin 79. Svetlana 80. Patrick 81. Natalya 82. Qing 83. Ahmad 84. Martha 85. Andrey 86. Sunita 87. Andrea 88. Christine 89. Irina 90. Laura 91. Linda 92. Marina 93. Carmen 94. Ghulam 95. Vladimir 96. Barbara 97. Angela 98. George 99. Roberto 100. Peng

Very interesting. Mohammed and its variants obviously wins hands-down if, even when split into four, they all still make the top ten! Isn't it tradition for every first-born boy in a Muslim family to be given the name? I'm guessing there must be a very large number of Mohammeds who are commonly known by a middle/different name, to distinguish them from fathers/grandfathers/cousins/friends etc.

That said, I would have thought that a great many people of that name would live in Arabic-speaking countries, so are there also several common variants when written in Arabic script - or only when transliterated into 'western' script?

Also, looking at 87 - Andrea - presumably this is boosted by including both males and females with the name, depending on their national heritage/culture and whether it's considered a M or F (or even unisex) name?

I'm guessing that several of these World Top 100 names would also feature heavily in China Top 100 names - but probably not feature at all if China were excluded for some reason. 1,000th most popular in China or India is likely to carry a lot more weight in the World table than overall most popular in Liechtenstein or Andorra!

@WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll
Muhammad is always spelt the same way in Arabic script. You are right that the spelling only changes when transliterated, so really the 4 entries should be combined into one, which would push the name further up the list. In fact I always thought it was the most common boys' name in the world. If you add 'Mehmet' which is the Turkish pronunciation of the same name, it must surely come out number 1.

In some Ghanaian communities it is customary for all boys to be called Muhammad, so e.g. brothers could be called Muhammad Najib, Muhammad Karim, etc.

That's interesting @ZoyaTheDestroyer - I've met a few middle aged Mark's so I'd guessed it could have been UK Top 10 at some point, but not Top 3! I've always found the short lived popularity of Kevin in other parts of Europe odd too. Why Kevin and not similar names like Wayne or Keith?

Oh actually I've answered my own question - I bet it coincided with the popularity of Kevin Costner and also the Home Alone character in the early 90's.