Muhammad
A surname and given name from the Arabic name of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, meaning “praised” or “worthy of praise.”
The #1,884 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 16,185 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Muhammad comes from the Arabic root ḥ-m-d, which is associated with praise. The name is usually understood to mean “praised” or “one who is praised,” and it is the name of the Prophet of Islam. As a surname, it often arose through use of a respected personal name in family naming traditions rather than from an older hereditary English-style surname system.
History
The name spread widely across the Muslim world and, through migration and modern civil registration, has also become a surname in many countries outside the Arabic-speaking sphere. In English-language records it may appear as a family name, but it is often also found as a given name or part of a compound personal name. Modern spellings are broadly stable, though transliterations can vary across regions and languages.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Muhammad is one of the most common personal names in the world, so it appears very frequently in both given-name and surname position.