Muhammad as soon as once more claimed the highest spot as the most well-liked boys’ identify in England and Wales, based on newly launched authorities knowledge, whereas the identify “Yahya” made the quickest climb of any identify in 2024—prompting broader questions on cultural identification and societal shifts in trendy Britain.
On July 31, 2025, the UK Workplace for Nationwide Statistics (ONS) printed its 2024 child identify rankings, confirming that 5,721 boys had been named Muhammad—reflecting a 20% improve over the earlier 12 months. This marks the second consecutive 12 months Muhammad topped the listing and the fifth 12 months it ranked within the prime ten. When together with shut variants—Mohammed (1,760 boys, ranked twenty first) and Mohammad (986 boys, ranked 53rd)—the entire variety of new child boys bearing a variation of the identify surpasses 8,400.
Muhammad led naming charts in 5 out of 9 English areas, together with London, the West Midlands, and the North West, however it ranked 57th in Wales.
In the meantime, the identify “Yahya” surged 33 locations to interrupt into the highest 100 boys’ names within the UK for the primary time, touchdown at 93rd total. A complete of 583 boys had been named Yahya in 2024—making it the fastest-rising male identify on the annual listing.
The dramatic ascent triggered commentary throughout British media. The Telegraph printed an article titled, “Why are so many British infants being given the identical identify as a murderous Hamas terrorist?” It highlighted that Yahya was “by far the quickest riser” and questioned whether or not the pattern mirrored coincidence—or one thing extra regarding—given Britain’s fraught political local weather following Hamas’s October 7 bloodbath.
A lot of the main focus centered on the identify’s affiliation with Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas terror chief extensively considered the mastermind behind the October 7 bloodbath—the deadliest day for Jews because the Holocaust, throughout which over 1,200 Israelis had been killed and greater than 250 kidnapped. Sinwar, killed by Israeli forces in October 2024, rose to energy following his 2011 launch from Israeli jail, the place he served 5 life sentences for a number of murders. In 2017, he succeeded Ismail Haniyeh as Hamas’s chief in Gaza.
Hamas stays a chosen terrorist group below the UK’s Terrorism Act 2000, rendering any help or promotion of the group or its leaders unlawful.
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