Ofc Mohammed is the most common name but thats a name common within the muslim community. I have noticed the name Sarah in every country, regardless of race or religion. Or it might be an abrahamic religion thing but thats most of the world atleast.
I suspect other Abrahamic names might make the cut.
[X] Shaaauuuuuun!
Despite how many forms it takes, it isn’t very common in the muslim world or asia which make up for a vast proportion of the world. So many of the names variations are within Europe.
John the Baptist is considered a prophet also in Islam, so local variations of the name John are not so infrequent in Muslim countries, at least according to Wikipedia, see Yahya.
Theodore, Mateo, matthew, jonathan, jesse, gia, Anjali, Doris. Theres like 30 more, I didnt notice a super common asian name, anjali is fairly common in india. But yeah name meaning gift is probably up there.
Also same as “Nathan” “El” or “Nathaniel”
is Bogdan another cognate, then? from the same root?
Though Bogdan does mean god given, the roots are Slavic.
Wait, does that mean, Joe Biden is literally a God Emperor? Or does Joseph have other roots?
Origin: Diminutive of Joseph Meaning: “Jehovah increases”
Everyone is saying it means “gift” but Wikipedia (as well as an embroidery my grandma gave me when I was young!) says it comes from Yohanan/Johanan יוֹחָנָן (Yôḥānān), which means “YHWH (Yahweh/God) is gracious”, with gracious being used in the form of “merciful” or “forgiving”.
Which can kind of mean the same thing but is also different enough. Johnathan, however, does mean “God has given”.
TIL that John and Johnathan are not different versions of the same name!
Also yahya in arabic
يحيى
Names with the same meaning is an interesting one. Id say that counts, I hadnt even thought about that!
I’d also allow variations of the name, John is Yuhanna in arabic.
I don’t know the answer, but at least this gives us some way to actually count this:
- check which languages encompass 90% (or more) of the native speakers of Earth
- check the most names that fit 90% (or more) of the native speakers of each language
- sum up names across languages that you deemed to be “the same”, like John and Yuhanna
There’ll be a tiny bit of error there, but given that you’re focusing only on the most common name, I guess that it’s fine.
I wonder if there’s some previous research on that. Digging further yielded nothing for me. (You got me curious, too.)
Yeah that sounds like a very reasonable approach. Ofc I’m not gonna do it lol.
