London: A report released on Wednesday says that Mohammad is likely to beat Jack and become the most popular name for baby boys in Britain by the end of the year.

British newspaper The Times, reported on Wednesday that if all the different spellings of Mohammad are taken into account it already places second. When it is transliterated into English from Arabic, families spell it as closely to their own pronunciations as possible, leading to a variation in spelling.

This year, 6,928 baby boys were named Jack and some 5,991 baby boys were given some version of the name Mohammad. Thomas, Joshua and Oliver followed to complete the top five.

The Times report said that the growth of the name Mohammad had risen by 12 per cent last year, and if it continued its rise it would be the number one name by the years end.