The most popular baby names in Israel this year

Arutz-7 reports:

The Ministry of Interior reports that the most common names of the past year (5775) were Tamar and Mohammad.

The two most common names after Mohammad were Yosef and David.

The two most common female names after Tamar were Adelle and Miriam.

Solely in the Jewish sector, the most popular male names were Uri, David and Ariel and the most popular girl’s names were Tamar, Avigail and Adelle.

Here are the lists:

Most popular girl names in Israel
Tamar
Adele
Miriam
Sarah
Avigail
Noa
Shira
Talia
Yael
Leah

Most popular girl names in Israel amongst the Jewish sector
Tamar
Avigail
Adele
Noa
Shira
Talia
Yael
Sarah
Leah
Roni

Most popular boy names in Israel
Mohammed
Yosef/Yusef
David
Daniel
Uri/Ori
Omer
Eitan
Ariel
Noam
Adam

Most popular boy names in Israel amongst the Jewish sector
Uri/Ori
David
Ariel
Noam
Eitan
Yosef/Yusef
Itai
Daniel
Yehonatan
Moshe

Whenever Mohammed is named one of the most popular names in a country, people tend to freak out. But all it means is that Muslims are far, far more likely to name their boys "Mohammed" than any other name, while non-Muslims spread their names around more.

It is interesting that Muslims are naming their children Yusef/Yosef and Daweed/David so often as to push those numbers among all Israelis to be #2 and #3. It would be interesting to compare Israeli Arabs with Palestinians; it is possible that some Israeli Arabs give their children names that could help their kids integrate better into Israeli society (they are spelled the same way in Hebrew.) Same goes for Miriam/Maryam and Sarah.

Also interesting is that "Daniel" is the fourth most popular boy's name but only the eighth most popular Jewish name. I've never heard of Muslims using that name, so it must be immensely popular among Israeli Christians.

But I am completely mystified as to how Eitan is more popular than Ariel among Israelis as a whole but less popular than Ariel amongst Jews.

Adele? I wonder if that particular name is popular not only because of the singer but also as a pun on the Yiddish "Eidel" אֵײדֶעל , meaning "gentle."

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