Mohammed
Meaning
alternate transcription of Muhammad, 'praised, commendable'
The story
Mohammed is an alternate transcription of the Arabic name written in English most often as Muhammad, which means "praised, commendable", from the root hamida, "to praise". Behind the Name's roster for it spans the whole map of history: the prophet who founded Islam in the seventh century, al-Khwarizmi the Persian mathematician who devised algebra, the Andalusian scholar Averroes, the poet Rumi, and the boxer Muhammad Ali. The American line counted here belongs to this spelling alone, and it has climbed every decade since the 1950s: about 440 boys in the 1970s, about 1,400 in the 1980s, about 3,100 in the 1990s, about 3,800 in the 2000s, about 4,700 in the 2010s, and about 2,600 so far this decade. One name, many transcriptions, each with its own line in the ledger, and this one still rising.
Mohammed's name family
One shared root links 4 names in Arabic.
Shared root: from the Arabic root h-m-d "to praise": Muhammad reads "praiseworthy" and Ahmad "most praised", both names of the Prophet
The family
More branches
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Mohammed peaked in the 2000s and the 2020s in nearly equal measure.
See popularity in Brazil
Popularity in Brazil
269 people · the #20,585 first name in Brazil · about 1 in 1,000,000 · median age 30
Among people named Mohammed living in Brazil at the 2022 census, more were born in the 1980s than in any other decade.
The census also counted 36 born between 2020 and August 2022, too recent a span to chart.
Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
When you meet Mohammed
Most people given the name Mohammed in the United States are teenagers or young adults today.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
The Mohammed deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Mohammed truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Mohammed fits with your family’s names and surname.
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