The name Muhammad wins the prize for the world’s most common name. It derives from the Arabic root “h-m-d” and means “praiseworthy one.” It’s often used, much like John Doe, to indicate someone whose name is unknown, or in combination with another given name. At least 15 million people worldwide are named Muhammad.

Because it is a transliteration from the Arabic, Muhammad has a multitude of spellings, depending on the country of origin. The variation Mohammed is found in North Africa. Mohammad is used in Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Muhammed and Mohamed are familiar spellings in the Arab world. The variations are virtually endless: Mohamet, Muhamed, Mohamad, Mahammed, Mohammod, Mahamed, Muhammod, Muhamad, Mohmmed, Mohamud and Mohammud. Muhammad translated into other languages becomes Mehmet (Turkey, Albania), Maxamed (Somalia), and so on.

One of the reasons the name Muhammad has become so popular is that Islam, which was founded by the prophet Muhammad, has become the world’s second most popular religion after Christianity. Muslim parents often name a boy Muhammad to show their reverence for the Prophet and Islam and to influence their child in developing good character. There may be as many as 1.2 billion Muslims in the world. That’s one-fifth of the global population, and those numbers are increasing by almost 3% every year. Muslims constitute the majority in 52 countries.

In England, which is home to some 1.5 million Muslims, the name Muhammad is now the second most popular after Jack-particularly among men under 35-and is expected to be number one in 2007. Almost 6,000 British boy babies were named Muhammad in 2006. In the U.S., the name Mohammad was ranked 589th in a 2006 report of the Social Security Administration.

The prophet Muhammad may or may not have been the first with that name, but it’s more likely that the name existed long before his birth. It’s mentioned four times in the Qur’an, the holy book of Islam.

Unfortunately, naming a baby Muhammad doesn’t guarantee good character. The FBI’s most wanted criminal, the infamous Osama Bin Laden, has Muhammad in his name. His full name is Sheikh Usamah Bin-Muhammad Bin-Ladin. John Allen Muhammad is a serial killer who killed 10 people in the Beltway sniper attacks in 2002 along with young partner Lee Boyd Malvo.

There are two famous boxers converted to Islam and changed their name to Muhammad are Muhammad Ali (formerly Cassius Clay) and Dwight Muhammad Qawi (formerly Dwight Braxton).

Another prominent Muhammad was Elijah Muhammad, born Elijah Poole, who became the leader of the Black Muslims and the Nation of Islam in the U.S. in the mid-1930s.

The enterprising Muhammad Yunus is the Bangladeshi banker/economist who created the highly successful Grameen Bank, which uses the concept of microcredit to help lift the poor out of poverty.

Mohamed al-Fayed, the Egyptian-born owner of Harrods department store in England, became well-known worldwide when his son Dodi became the boyfriend of Princess Diana and then died along with her in a tragic auto accident.

Numerous 20th and 21st century politicians and world leaders have variations of Muhammad as part of their full names. Anwar Sadat, the Egyptian president assassinated in 1981, was born Mohamed Anwar el-Sadat. The birth name of the last Shah of Iran, Reza Pahlavi, was Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi. The present king of Morocco is Mohammed Ben Al-Hassan, or Mohammed VI.

It’s not always a blessing to be named Muhammad in our post-9/11 Age of Terrorism. Government agencies have been known to target and arrest men with this name in the shameful practice of racial profiling.