The mainstream media in the Netherlands reported last week that “Noah” was the most popular baby name for boys in the small European nation.
“Noah and Emma were the most popular children’s names in the past year,” reported Nos.nl. “This is evident from the annual list of names of the Social Insurance Bank, which pays out the child benefit. Boys were named Noah 635 times, while 755 girls went through life as Emma since last year.” The year before, “Daan” and “Anna” were the most popular names, the site said.
But a journalist at Powned.tv did a little research on the report and found something completely different. Checking for “Mohammed” — and all its alternative spellings — the writer found that 636 babies had been given that name last year.
“Mohammed (221 times) and all possible conjugations like Mohamed (211 times), Muhammed (110 times), Mohammad (51 times), Muhammad (43 times), Mohamad (unknown), Muhamed (unknown), Muhammet (not known), Mouhamed (not known), Muhamad (not known), Mahamuud (not known),” wrote the reporter.
The 636 variants of the name put it one ahead of “Noah.” That makes “Mohammed” and its alternate spellings the most popular name in the Netherlands for the second straight year. In 2016, “724 boys received the name (or one of the conjugations) from their parents,” the site reported.
And then there was this:
“By the way, how do you think about the statistics in Great Britain and Wales? The British claim that Oliver is the name given most to newborn boys . In reality, this is … Right, Mohammed or one of his conjugations,” the reporter wrote, citing this article.
The UK’s national statistics office recently released the latest data on baby names in England and Wales. It says the following: “Oliver remains as the most popular first name given to baby boys in England and Wales in 2016.” But that’s not really true. In fact, the most common name by far is Muhammad.
So apparently you can’t trust the mainstream media in the Netherlands, either.