MEANING & CONTEXT
What does Muhammad mean?
Muḥammad comes from the Arabic root for praise and has the same root as Ahmad, Hamid and Mahmud. The doubled m belongs to the Arabic name's grammatical formation.
Meaning themes
Spellings in Indian scripts
Devanagari
मुहम्मद
Conventional spelling
Gurmukhi
ਮੁਹੰਮਦ
Conventional spelling
Arabic
محمد
Conventional spelling
Tamil
முகமது
Conventional spelling
Devanagari
मोहम्मद
1,563,691 records for this spelling. Historical records ↗
Other spellings
- Mohammad
- Mohammed
- Muhammed
HISTORICAL VOTER RECORDS
Muhammad in Indian usage
2,060,742 historical electoral-roll records, chiefly adults, rather than current baby-name rankings.
Mostly recorded for boys (98.4%) in these historical records.
- Recorded as female: 33,048 records (1.6%).
- Recorded as male: 2,027,694 records (98.4%).
By birth decade
| Birth decade | Records |
|---|---|
| 1920s | 4,864 |
| 1930s | 19,730 |
| 1940s | 62,805 |
| 1950s | 137,861 |
| 1960s | 227,558 |
| 1970s | 362,222 |
| 1980s | 584,601 |
| 1990s | 660,609 |
| Other decades | 492 |
By state or territory
| State / territory | Records |
|---|---|
| Bihar | 1,196,047 |
| Kerala | 330,577 |
| Uttar Pradesh | 206,637 |
| Rajasthan | 83,410 |
| Jharkhand | 54,477 |
| Maharashtra | 49,446 |
| Madhya Pradesh | 39,647 |
| Punjab | 19,459 |
| Andhra Pradesh | 17,972 |
| Delhi | 17,463 |
| Jammu and Kashmir | 14,379 |
| Haryana | 12,491 |
| Uttarakhand | 5,393 |
| Goa | 2,803 |
| Chandigarh | 2,136 |
| Puducherry | 2,115 |
| Himachal Pradesh | 1,975 |
| Manipur | 1,036 |
| Andaman and Nicobar Islands | 846 |
| Assam | 823 |
| Karnataka | 350 |
| Gujarat | 257 |
| Daman and Diu | 252 |
| Meghalaya | 240 |
| Tripura | 192 |
| Sikkim | 127 |
| Other states | 192 |
How to read these numbers
Small counts and a second count where needed are withheld for privacy; an omitted value is not zero. Coverage, dates and suppression.
Recorded abroad
Official births registered in 2025, for the exact spelling shown.
| Jurisdiction | Spelling / recorded sex | Births | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| England & Wales | Muhammad / M | 5,957 | 1 |
| Scotland | Muhammad / M | 291 | 4 |
ONS and National Records of Scotland; Crown copyright, Open Government Licence v3. Counts follow each office’s publication rules.
Documented namesakes
Muhammad Hafiz Hashim
Malaysian badminton player
Sources
- Wiktionary: Muhammad ↗ (opens in a new tab)
meaning
- Given-name entry (Wikidata): Muhammad ↗ (opens in a new tab)
Given-name spelling
- Historical Indian voter-record totals, v3 ↗ (opens in a new tab)
Historical usage; CC0 1.0; birth years 1910–2001
- England & Wales 2025 birth statistics: Exact spelling Muhammad; Table_6, C6 ↗ (opens in a new tab)
Exact spelling Muhammad; Table_6, C6
- Scotland 2025 birth statistics: Exact spelling Muhammad; full-list-1974-2025.csv; 2025 Boy ↗ (opens in a new tab)
Exact spelling Muhammad; full-list-1974-2025.csv; 2025 Boy
- Behind the Name: Muhammad ↗ (opens in a new tab)
meaning
Adapted dictionary text: CC BY-SA 4.0.