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Preserves the most common name in Israel. Footballer Muhammad Salah
(Reuters)
The most common name for boys in Israel in 2020 was Muhammad and for girls – Maya, by a small margin over Miriam and Tamar. This is according to a special report by the Central Bureau of Statistics on first names last year. The data show that the battle for first place among the girls born in Israel was very close. 408 Muslims) and 1,116 Tamar (all Jewish).
Among the Jewish girls, Tamar has made her debut for the fifth year in a row. The name Maya remained in second place and Abigail rose to third place. Noa dropped to fourth place. Then there are Sarah, Ayala, Adel, Yael, Shira, Esther, Hannah, Ella, Miriam, Rachel, Rebecca, Lia, Chaya, Talia, Roni and also Rumi. Among the rare names for girls given last year are the names Ahava, Alte, Herut, Yaar, Alexandra, Doreen, Ortal, Fassil, Kayla, Ruthi, Shalhevet and Tamari.
Among the Jewish boys, David leads the list, followed by Lavi, Ariel, Yosef, Noam, Uri, Raphael, Ari, Moshe and Yehuda. Among the rare names for boys you can find names that were quite common decades ago like Avi, Yigal, Yaron, Yaniv, Eran and Ram and also new and unusual names like Lear, Shiel, Luca, Elishai, Don and Tai.
For Muslim boys, the name Muhammad dominates. In 2020, 2,393 babies were named after him – and in fact one in eight Muslims born that year was named after him. Next on the list are Ahmad, Adam, Yosef, Omar, Ali, Abed, Amir, Ibrahim and Mahmoud. In the list of common names among Muslim girls, Miriam is in first place, followed by Am, Lynn, Mlak, Jury, Lian, Mila, Aline, Nur and Maria.
Among the Christian boys the five most common names were Cherbel, Jude, Elias, Liam and George, and among the Christian girls the five most common names were: Lynn, Maria, Sama, Celine and Lia. Among the Druze boys the name Adam was the most common followed by two, Neil, Amir and Jude. Among the Druze girls the names Mila, Ayala, Lore, Lynn and Jasmine were the most common.
Among Jewish girls, the name Tamar was most common in Ofakim (4.2%) and in Haifa (2.1%); Maya was most common in the cities: Herzliya, Modi’in-Maccabim-Re’ut, Kfar Saba, Ramat Gan, Hadera, Rishon Lezion, Holon, Raanana, Kiryat Ata, Rehovot, Rosh HaAyin, Yavne, Ashkelon and Petah Tikva. Abigail was the most common name in the city of Lod.
The name Noa was scattered among many cities, and in none of them was it the most common name. Sarah was the most common name in Beitar Illit (6.7%), Beit Shemesh (5.1%) and Bnei Brak (4.9%). Adele was the most common name among girls in the cities of Ramla (4.0%), Bat Yam (3.9%), Dimona (3.6%), Nahariya (3.3%), Beer Sheva (3.0%), Ashdod, Netanya and Kiryat Gat.
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The Muslims also liked the name. Maya in first place
(Photo: Tal Shahar)
Among Jewish boys, the name David was most common in Ofakim (4.7% of Jewish boys), in Jerusalem (4.2%), in Netivot (3.3%) and in Ashdod (2.8%). Quantitatively the highest number of children named after him was in Jerusalem (298). Lavie was the most common name in the cities: Dimona, Sderot, Pardes Hanna-Karkur, Beer Sheva, Ashkelon, Eilat, Kiryat Gat, Afula, Harish, Holon, Petah Tikva and Yavne.
Ariel was the most common name in the cities: Kiryat Bialik, Ness Ziona, Tirat Carmel, Givat Zeev, Modi’in-Maccabim-Re’ut, Rehovot and Haifa. Noam was the most common name in Ma’ale Adumim, Rishon Lezion, Bat Yam and Raanana, and Uri – in Rosh HaAyin. In some localities the most common name was significantly more common than the other names. In the village of Chabad, for example, the name Menachem (10.6%) was the most common.
The name Muhammad was the most common among Muslims in all the cities where a Muslim population lives. Joseph was the second most common name among Muslims in Jerusalem (182 Muslim boys were called by this name, 4.5% of Muslim boys) and Adam in Taibeh (35, 8.8%).
The CBS emphasized that the names underwent a process of improvement in which identical names written in different spellings were merged under the more common spelling. The names “Ayala” and “Ayala” were included under the name “Ayala”. In contrast, the names “Yonatan” and “Yehonatan” were counted separately because they behave differently.
On the other hand, different names written in the same way (without punctuation marks) appear as one name because the names appear without punctuation and cannot be distinguished. For example, the names “Oriya” and “Oriya” appear as one name even though they are different names.
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