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Muhammad (name)
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Muhammad is a common anglicized spelling of the Arabic given name مُحمد muḥammad, from the root Ḥ-M-D "praise."
Etymology
The name "Muhammad" is the transliteration of an Arabic name that comes from the Arabic passive participle from the triconsonantal root of Ḥ-M-D ("praise"). A strict transliteration is .
Other Arabic names from the same root include Mahmud, Ahmed, Hamid and al-Hamid, one of the 99 names of God meaning "The Blesser".
The name is also transliterated as Mohammad (primarily in Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan), Mohammed (Arab World, primarily in North Africa), Mohamed(Arab World), Muhammed (Arab World), Mahommed, Mehmed (Albania), Mehmet (Albania, Turkey), Mahomet(Albania). In Latin, it is Mahometus and Μωάμεθ (Moameth) in Greek. In Spanish is Mahoma, where the H has a mute sound, being spelled "Maoma". In Chinese, it is written as 穆罕默德(Mùhǎnmòdé). In Russia, while the name of the Islamic prophet is typically spelled Мухаммад (Mukhammad), as a given name among the Muslims of Russia, the most common spelling is Магомед (Magomed). In Somali it is Maxamed.
"Muhammad" itself might not be the most common transliteration, but it is the most correct among the most used.
History
A legend states that the first person named Muhammad was the Islamic prophet Muhammad (c. 570–632), however, some Muslim sources contradict this. The Encyclopaedia of Islam states:The name "Muhammad" is reported to have occurred previously among the Arabs (e.g. Ibn Durayd, ed. Wustenfeld, 6 f.; Ibn Sa'd, i/1, 111 f.) and therefore needs not be regarded as an epithet adopted later in life by the Prophet. It should be noted, however, that the brief section on such persons given by Ibn Sa'd has the heading, "Account of those who were named Muhammad in the days of the djahiliyya [q.v.] in the hope of being called to prophethood which had been predicted", which indicates the tendentious nature of some of these accounts. The fact that the sources say frequently that in his youth Muhammad was called Amin, a common Arab name meaning "faithful, trustworthy", suggests the possibility that this could have been his given name, a masculine form from the same root as his mother's name, Amina.but it is more probable that Amin was a nickname given to him by The residents of Mecca as he was called Al-sadiq Al-amin, meaning "the truthfull, the trustworthy", due to his reputation of impartiality. The name Muhammada for women occurs several times in the Syrian Book of the Himyarites.
Ibn Ishaq's "The Life of Muhammad" includes a particular person named Muhammad that was killed in c. 570 CE, the Year of the Elephant, and who was related to the known events of that year.
During the prophet's era, men like Muhammad ibn Maslama bore the same name.
It is stated that the name was "very rare" among Arabs of that era.
The name became common among Muslims already during his generation of Muslim men, for example Muhammad ibn Abu Bakr (631–658).
The name Muhammad appears four times in the Quran, the following verses: , , and .
The hadeeth "The best names are those which describe one as a slave of Allaah or which are derived from the name Muhammad" is not sahih according to many Islamic scholars.
It has been argued that the name is related to the word "Paraclete" that is to be found in the bible.
On February 7, 1965, in the U.S., the man born as Cassius Clay became famous when he adopted Islam and changed his name to Muhammad Ali. He thus became arguably the most known Muhammad in the U.S., and also the one to introduce the name to many people there.
In Bangladesh, the abbreviation Md is sometimes used.
On January 15, 2003, the Council on American-Islamic Relations reported:
A national Islamic civil rights and advocacy group today called on Western Union to clarify its policy on racial and religious profiling after receiving a report that the money transfer service demands to know the national origin of any customer named "Muhammad.
Statistics
| Year | Rank in USA | Rank in UK | Rank in Canada |
| 2004 | 681 | 54 | c. 92 |
| 2003 | 59 | ||
| 2002 | 61 | ||
| 2001 | |||
| 2000 | 622 | 71 | |
| 1999 | 701 | 90 | |
| 1998 | 725 | 91 | |
| 1997 | |||
| 1996 | 774 | ||
| 1995 | 778 | ||
| 1994 | 862 | ||
| 1993 | 883 | ||
| 1992 | 903 |
According to the sixth edition of The Columbia Encyclopedia (2000), "Muhammad" is "probably the most common given name" in the world, including variations. It is estimated that more than 15 million people in the world bear the name Muhammad.
Muhammad is a popular surname in the United States, ranking 4,194 out of 88,799 for people of all ages in the 1990 census. According to the Social Security Administration, "Muhammad" is the 639th most popular first name for newborns in the United States in 2006. "Mohammad" and "Mohammed" are ranked 589th and 633th, respectively.
The BBC reported that "Muhammed" was the second most popular given names for baby boys in Britain, combining 14 spelling variations.
In May 2006, it was reported that statistics indicate that some 8,928 Danish Muslims carry the name "Muhammad" and that in 2004 alone, more than 167 new-born babies were registered with the prophet's name.
List of prominent people named Muhammad
First names
Prominent people named "Muhammad" include:Patronymics
Patronymics are names taken directly from one's father's personal name. In Arabic, bint means "daughter of" and ibn and bin mean "son of". Conversely, abu means "father of" and umm means "mother of".| Name | Lifespan | Description |
| 7th centuries | ||
| Fatimah bint Muhammad | (disputed)–632 | The prophet's daughter |
| Qasim ibn Muhammad | ?–605 | The prophet's son |
| Ibrahim ibn Muhammad | ?–? | The prophet's son |
| Abu Bakr ibn Muhammad ibn Hazm | ?–? | Scholar |
Surnames
Surnames are family names, usually shared by everyone in the family. In many cultures they are taken directly from father to his children.| Name | Lifespan | Description |
| 20th century | ||
| Muhammad, John Allen | Born John Allen Williams | |
| Muhammad, Idris | Born Leo Morris | |
| Muhammad, Ruby | ||
| Muhammad, Kenny | ||
| Muhammad, Clara | Born Clara Evans | |
| Muhammad, Elijah | Born Elijah Poole | |
| Muhammad, Muhsin | ||
| Muhammad, Ghulam | ||
Other
| Other entities named Muhammad: | ||
| Mohammedia, a port city located 15 miles northeast of Casablanca in western Morocco | ||
| Mohammad's Army (Jaish-e-Mohammad) is a guerrilla organization that has been operating in Iraq against U.S.-led occupying forces since at least mid 2003 | ||
| Jaish-e-Mohammed, another guerrilla organisation based in South Asia | ||
| a children's toy named "Mohammed" was at the heart of the Sudanese teddy bear blasphemy case that led to arrest, conviction, and deportation of a British teacher in Khartoum. | ||
See also
References
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Last updated on Tuesday March 11, 2008 at 13:37:53 PDT (GMT -0700)
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