Mohamed is one of the most important names in human history — it's an alternate transliteration of Muhammad, the name of the Prophet of Islam and statistically one of the most common given names in the world. In the U.S., Mohamed appears in SSA data separately from Muhammad and Mohammed, representing a specific community's preferred romanization.
The Name of the Prophet
Mohamed/Muhammad comes from the Arabic root h-m-d (to praise, to laud), meaning "the praised one" or "the highly commended." The Prophet Muhammad (c. 570-632 CE) is the founder of Islam and the name's definitive bearer. Because Muslims often name sons in honor of the Prophet, Muhammad and its variants are among the most commonly given names globally. The SSA records Mohamed as a separate spelling with 18,781 total bearers, 2014 peak, current rank #548.
Transliteration and Community
The Arabic name محمد has no single correct romanization — Muhammad, Mohammed, and Mohamed all appear in SSA records, each representing different communities' preferences and different transliteration conventions. Mohamed is associated particularly with North and West African Muslim communities (Moroccan, Algerian, Senegalese, Somali) where that spelling is standard. The spelling choice often signals specific heritage. For a family choosing between spellings, the "right" one is the one that connects to their specific cultural tradition.
A Name That Carries the World
Whatever the spelling, the underlying name carries extraordinary weight — religious, historical, cultural. Choosing Mohamed for a son is an explicit act of cultural and religious identification, and most families who do so understand precisely what they're communicating. For Muslim families from North or West African backgrounds, Mohamed is not a trend choice or an aesthetic decision; it's an inheritance. The name's steady presence in U.S. data reflects ongoing immigration and the continuous renewal of that tradition in new American communities.