Britain loves Arabic names: Muhammad, Nur top list

It seems Britain loves Arabic names. According to the website BabyCentre, Muhammad has become the most popular name for baby boys in the UK, knocking off Oliver from the top spot.

The list of top 100 baby names for 2014 reveals a surge in Arabic names, reported The Guardian.

Among the new names on the boys’ top 100 list are Omar, Ali, and Ibrahim.

For girls too, a same trend was observed. Maryam is the biggest riser for girls, jumping 59 places to number 35. Nur is a new entry at number 29.

Sophia was the top name for baby girls, mirroring its popularity in BabyCentre’s charts in the US, Brazil, Spain and Russia last year.

Just like last year, royal names saw a slide in popularity. The list shows that Britain doesn’t really like the names Harry, William, and George anymore.

Sarah Redshaw, managing editor of BabyCentre, told Telgraph , “Traditionally, Muhammad is often the name given to the first-born boy in Muslim families.

Television series are also a great influence in baby names it seems. Piper, the name made popular by American television series Orange is the New Black, is up 267 per cent while Emilia.

From Game Of Thrones, the name Emilia was a new entry at number 53. Emilia Clarke is the actor who plays the character of Daenerys Targaryen. In fact, parents also registered the names Daenerys and Tyrion this year.

Similarly, Breaking Bad continued to influence name choices, with Skyler, Jesse and Walter all on the rise.