Muhammad (name)

The name comes from the passive participle of the Arabic verb ḥammada (حَمَّدَ), meaning 'to praise', which itself comes from the triconsonantal Semitic root Ḥ-M-D.

[2] The name has been banned for newborn children in the Xinjiang region of China since 2017,[3] as well as for the Ahmadi community in Pakistan.

[citation needed] According to the sixth edition of The Columbia Encyclopedia (2000), Muhammad is probably the most common given name in the world, including variations.

[8] Approximately 60% of people named Muhammad live in Middle East, North Africa and Pakistan.

The list included more than two dozen names and was targeted at the 10 million Uighurs in the western region of Xinjiang.

[21] In 2017 legislation made it illegal in China to give children names that the Chinese government deemed to "exaggerate religious fervor”.

[25][26] Al Jazeera reported in 2021 that blasphemy charges had been filed against Ahmadis who wrote "Mohammed" on a wedding invitation in an unspecified amount of instances.

Part of the list of officially banned names in Xinjiang that was announced in 2017. China prohibits parents of the ethnic Uighur minority from giving their newborn children names such as Mohammed or names that the Chinese authorities consider to have "extremely religious" meaning. [ 18 ]