‘Muhammed’ is third most popular baby name in Austria in 2017

Europe’s growing Muslim population is revealing itself in surprising ways, with “Muhammed” coming in third place in most popular male baby names in Austria for 2017.

Europe’s growing Muslim population is revealing itself in surprising ways, with “Muhammed” coming in third place in most popular male baby names in Austria for 2017.

The Austrian daily Kronen Zeitung announced the statistics on 2017 male baby names Friday, with “Muhammed” moving up into third place, just behind the traditional boys’ names of “Alexander” and “Maximilian.”

For statistical purposes, the different spellings of the same name were grouped together. For girls’ names, Sophia, Sara and Anna are the most popular, according to statistics released by the evaluation of Municipal Department 23.

The most common baby names are an indicator of cultural change, the newspaper explained.