Meaning and history
Muhammad is an Arabic name meaning “praised” or “commendable,” derived from the root ḥamida, “to praise.” It was the name of the prophet who founded Islam in the 7th century; according to Islamic belief, when he was about 40, the angel Gabriel revealed the first verses of the Quran to him, and about 20 years later he conquered Mecca, his birthplace, before dying in 632 with most of the Arabian Peninsula under Muslim control. The name has remained very popular in the Muslim world and was used by several Abbasid caliphs and six Ottoman sultans, usually in the Turkish form Mehmet. Notable bearers include the mathematician and scientist Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi, the scholar Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Rushd, known as Averroes, the poet Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi, the founder of Pakistan Muhammad Ali Jinnah, and the boxer Muhammad Ali.
20062006: 366 births, rank #637
2007: 330 births, rank #705
2008: 403 births, rank #616
2009: 430 births, rank #601
2010: 510 births, rank #505
20112011: 545 births, rank #482
2012: 582 births, rank #469
2013: 694 births, rank #423
2014: 774 births, rank #400
2015: 882 births, rank #365
20162016: 958 births, rank #352
2017: 898 births, rank #369
2018: 962 births, rank #346
2019: 996 births, rank #337
2020: 1,063 births, rank #309
20212021: 1,085 births, rank #307
2022: 1,155 births, rank #298
2023: 1,241 births, rank #271
2024: 1,445 births, rank #246
20252025: 1,473 births, rank #239
Muhammad rose from #246 to #239 for boys between 2024 and 2025. That year also produced its highest recorded birth count, at 1,473.