this post was submitted on 11 Sep 2023
5 points (77.8% liked)

Asklemmy

43826 readers
843 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy ๐Ÿ”

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

  1. Open-ended question
  2. Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
  3. Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
  4. Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
  5. An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
 

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.

all 24 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[โ€“] deathbird@mander.xyz 9 points 1 year ago

The most common first name in the world is Maria, and the most common last name in the world is Wang. Erfo the most common name in the world is Maria Wang.

[โ€“] Vuipes@kbin.social 5 points 1 year ago

Probably any form of Maria, which is for both male/female. There are many documented usages of the name BCE.

[โ€“] lvxferre@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Hard to say. Like, do "Ivan", "Giovanni" and "John" count as the same, or different names? What about Latin "Amanda" (to be loved) vs. Japanese ๆ„›/Ai (love)? How do we even count this?

[โ€“] Nemo@midwest.social 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Ivan, Giovanni, John, Jean, Shaun, Sean, Shane, Zane, Ian, Jan, Yves, Juan, Johannes, Yohan, and more...

The name means "gift". Pretty universal.

[โ€“] mr47@kbin.social 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Ironically, all the variations you mentioned do not have the gift part, except for the letter 'n' :)

They all originate from Johnathan, which in Hebrew means, literally "God gave", the "Joh" part meaning "God", and "Nathan" meaning "gave".

[โ€“] grozzle@lemm.ee -1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

is Bogdan another cognate, then? from the same root?

Though Bogdan does mean god given, the roots are Slavic.

[โ€“] SnokenKeekaGuard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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.

[โ€“] Nemo@midwest.social 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm sure "gift" as a name is popular in those regions, too, even if it doesn't stem from the same root.

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.

[โ€“] SnokenKeekaGuard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Joseph/ Yousuf, Daniel/ Danyal. Again anything universal is Abrahamic just bc of what high proportion of the world is Christian/ Muslim/ Jew.

[โ€“] idiomaddict@feddit.de 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Iโ€™d assume Mary/Mariam/Maria is more common because there are fewer options for women

[โ€“] DrQuint@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I find that Ana beats out Maria only because only the english spell it/pronounce it different (Hanna). Everyone else does Ana.

But Mary has an absurd higher usage.

I haven't met a single woman named this

[โ€“] audiomodder@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Doesn't really exist in the Slavic countries, so I wouldn't say it's universal.

[โ€“] krash@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 year ago

Nonexistent in neither Scandinavian nor middle-eastern countries.

[โ€“] onlooker@lemmy.ml 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I would say Astro.

Okay fine, real answer. According to this, the most common female name in the world is Maria and the most common male name is Mohammed. You can also find a breakdown by continent and country, here.

[โ€“] danhakimi@kbin.social 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I think you straight up ignored OP's explanation of their question. OP explicitly addressed why Mohammad is not "the most universal name" by his meaning.

[โ€“] onlooker@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Then I guess I don't understand the question? Was it not what the most common name in the world is? I don't have many sources to go off of, but according to the site I posted, Mohammed is the most common male name in Africa, Asia and the most common in the world. If it's the most common name in the world, it would make sense that it also happens to be the most common in the muslim community and possibly other communities as well.

If this was not the question, then what was?

[โ€“] danhakimi@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

OP is kind of asking which names are common in the largest variety of places. Is there a name that's kinda- common on every continent?

[โ€“] onlooker@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Okay, I think I understand now. Looking at the names for Africa, Americas, Europe and Oceania, the names David and Maria seem to consistently be in the top 20. I'm intentionally excluding Asia, because their names seem to be wildly different compared to everywhere else.

Does this answer the question better?

[โ€“] danhakimi@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago

yeah, you got it. obviously, since we're trying to balance multiple different factors, it's not necessarily a "correct" response, but it addresses the question directly and well.