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

[mids2019]

It looks like Mohammed and Noah are the two most popular names in the UK. It got me thinking whether baby names are really embedded in our particular background, culture and race?

I don't know to what extent people pick names like Matthew or Mark for particularly religious religions but it would seem Mohammed is popular because of its time to Islam and there are very specific religious reasons for its pipularity.

I was wondering do those of faith select baby names outside their religous scope?

Do people with no faith consider any refligous origin when naming?

Is it important to maintain your culture and ancestral ties by using names familiar from different parts of the world?

Well. People like traditional names and traditionally most of us used to be religious.
My son has a biblical name but I am a massive atheist!
I would suspect the vast majority of Mohammeds have religious parents and most parents of Noahs don’t.

I would assume many parents of Noah’s aren’t religious. Whereas I would assume, for example, all parents of Ezekiel’s are.

I can’t really explain why. Perhaps I associate less commonly heard Biblical names with faith as opposed to general cultural exposure?

I'm sure many devout Christians do specifically opt for a biblical name, but many biblical names are now trendy choices for anyone, regardless of religion. Names like Noah, Isaac, Jude, Reuben, Ezra, Caleb etc are all very popular right now and I know of plenty whose parents aren't religious in the slightest.

Whereas I would be surprised to hear Muhammed used by a non-Muslim family. The name is too seeped in cultural/religious meaning. Same goes for a lot of Islamic names.

Obscure old testament prophets seem to go indicate a particular religious bent? I guess atheists pick from a wide range of potential names while those of faith are more restricted? I think this may explain Mohammed being the number one name in the UK as there may be a limited pool of Islamic names to choose.

Old testament names have a particularly Victorian ring to me ....Perhaps it's something to do with my daughter reading a Christmas carol with Ebeneezer and Jacob.

Noah is just a trendy name now, I wouldn’t assume any religiosity.

Thinking about baby naming does get determined by ancestry to a great extent and there are relatively few that step out of their naming silos of you like. As someone says it would be strange to see a non Muslim named Mohammed or a non Indian called Raj.

The name Noah became ultra trendy around 12 years ago, which overshadowed its biblical roots.

All the Noah's I know are from very unreligious families! Weird to me because growing up it wasn't popular at all secularly, but there were a few Noah's at the church I went to and they hated their names as it was rare/pointed to the fact they were Christian's in school etc.

Mohammed definitely is, I think because it's common to set it as a first name and have a second/middle name that is actually used as an identifier.

It's strange because with a connection to religion people are averse to saying a name is 'nice' or something twee like that because obviously the name is connectected to a religion which is profound in their identity.

I suppose a lot of old testament names just reflect our Abrahamic religous roots for part of our community.

It is funny how religious names suddenly get popular generally. As PP said, when I was growing up, you'd only ever meet a Noah from a religious family, now it's very popular with non religious people. I'd say the same thing's happened to Caleb.

I have a Matthew and neither me or his dad are at all religious. We love biblical names because they’ve been used for so long and have such a rich history. In my opinion they are much better than names that are trendy for just a few years and then stop being used as much.

Joshua or Josh springs to mind as well. The list is endless Adam, Eve, Isaac etc.etc. I would be intrigued to know what some biblical names fell out of popularity with time (sorry Judas!) as there may be obscure social and religious reasons for this. I note Jessie is not a popular name within European countries as this is a little blsphemic?

Surely the history of such names i?s bound to the fact for centuries we were much more relgous as a society?

Jessie has never been popular in the UK I think more because it was used as an insult (you big Jessie). It's certainly mentioned on MN a lot if the name is ever brought up.

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.

Also in mixed culture relationships I wonder how names are decided as surely one parent could be denied an opportunity to pass on a cultural identifier which may be important to them? Could lead to interesting discussions but I think cross cultural relationships are relatively rare.

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

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.

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’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.

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.

Why do we adhere to religous names in very much a secular society? I suppose there is hereditary weight to these names that make them culturally common.

I tend to think of religious names as a 'save bet' for some reason and it may not be a great idea to think to leftfield about names.

Is suppose you have Miriam=Mary, Musa = Moses etc.