The most popular name for boys in the UK, or maybe not

Now, you tell me, what was the most popular boy’s name in England in 2009?


Well, that depends on the newspaper you read.


In fact, according to the Guardian, Oliver was the most popular name for boys in 2009 but according to the Daily Mail it is instead, believe it or not, Mohammed.


Now, how can that be? Are the two newspapers reporting two different statistics? Or is one of them lying? And if so, which one? The truth is that both newspapers are technically right but they are highlighting the facts in a different way and here I can demonstrate it to you.


Let’s look at the figures, shall we? “Facts are sacred”, says the Guardian.


Then, if we look at the official list, we can see that in 2009 there have been 7,364 babies under the name of Oliver, 300 or so babies ahead of the second most popular name, Jack.


We can clearly see that Oliver is indeed, as reported in the Guardian, the most popular name for boys in 2009, no doubt about it. Mohammed is merely 16th, with only 3,300 babies bearing its name… so the Daily Mail is wrong, you may think, bloody Daily Mail always banging on about the Muslims Taking Over the Country.


But hold on a minute. Let’s look at the full list. Noticing something? Yes, Mohammed has indeed only 3,300 babies bearing its name, but Muhammad has 2,162, Mohammad 1,073, Muhammed 515 and so on… basically the total number of baby boys born in 2009 named after the prophet Mohammed with different spellings is 7,569 and therefore beating the number of boys called Oliver…


Now then, after the facts, who do you think is trying to deceive us? Who is telling the truth? Is the Guardian trying to cover the fact that the Muslim population is growing exponentially or is the Daily Mail always trying to talk about the Muslims with any possible excuse? Is the Guardian right in making us believe that Mohammad and Muhammad are two completely different names such as, shall we say, Jack and Oliver? Or is the Daily Mail right in pointing out that Mohammad and Muhammad are actually the same name and therefore it is rather stupid and deceiving to pretend they are not?


I leave the answer to you, and to Oliver and Mohammed.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1324194/Mohammed-popular-baby-boys-ahead-Jack-Harry.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2010/oct/27/baby-names-children-oliver-olivia