Muhammad

The name’s global significance rests on the Prophet Muhammad ibn Abdullah (c. 570-632), founder of Islam and deliverer of the Qur’an.

Born in Mecca and active as a prophet from roughly 610, he led the Hijra to Medina in 622, the event that marks the beginning of the Islamic calendar.

Within a century of his death, Arab armies had carried his message from the Iberian Peninsula to the Indus Valley, making Muhammad the most-used male given name on Earth.

Historical and literary bearers fill the annals of the Islamic world: Muhammad al-Khwarizmi (c.

780-850), whose treatise Kitab al-jabr gave algebra its name; Muhammad ibn Musa ibn Shakir, 1 of the Banu Musa brothers of ninth-century Baghdad; and the Mughal emperors, including Muhammad Shah, who ruled India in the 18th century.

In American culture, boxer Muhammad Ali (1942-2016), born Cassius Clay, carried the name to global visibility after his 1964 conversion.

In the United States, Muhammad has appeared in Social Security records since the early twentieth century and has climbed steadily, entering the top 500 in 2013 and the top 300 by 2020.

When all spelling variants (Mohammed, Mohamed, Muhammed) are combined, it has been the most popular boys’ name in England and Wales in several recent years and among the top choices in Belgium, the Netherlands, and Norway.

Contemporary bearers include NBA player Shareef Abdur-Rahim (born Abdul-Rahim), basketball Hall of Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (born Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor Jr.), and countless athletes, scholars, and heads of state across the Muslim world.