Most Popular Baby Boy Names in Jordan 2023 and Their Meanings

In 2023, 6,780 of the baby boys born in Jordan were named Muhammad (محمد). That is 1,334 more than the next two names on the list, Adam (آدم, 2,765) and Ahmad (أحمد, 2,681), put together. The list, based on figures from Jordan's official civil registry, contains 21 boys' names. Most of them are familiar across the Muslim world; a few are Arabic names taken straight from everyday words.

What the list shows, and what it doesn't

The figures come from the 2023 annual report of Jordan's Civil Status and Passports Department (CSPD) and from statements by its director general. Because the report's tables were published as images, we rely on the press account rather than the department's own file: an Akhbar Hayat article of 29 October 2024. The scope is Jordanian baby boys born anywhere in the country.

Counts were published for the top seven names only. From rank 8 onwards, the order is the order of the list in the article; we do not estimate numbers for those names.

The 21 boys' names of 2023

The table gives each name in Arabic script, a Latin transliteration, its meaning and its Abjad value. The value is calculated from the letters of the name's established Arabic spelling: shadda and vowel marks are not counted, an alif carrying a hamza counts as a single alif (1), and in two-word names the letters of both words are added together.

Three close races

There is no contest at the top: Muhammad was given to about 2.5 times as many babies as Adam in second place, a gap of 4,015. But among the seven names with published counts, three pairs are remarkably close:

• Adam and Ahmad: 2,765 against 2,681, a difference of just 84 babies.
• Yusuf and Omar: 2,474 against 2,380, a difference of 94.
• Shahm and Sanad: 2,023 against 1,976, a difference of 47, the narrowest gap among the seven names with published counts.

Together, the top seven names were given to 21,079 babies. The article does not give an exact total of births alongside the list, so we do not work out a percentage.

Three circles: prophets, history and words

Prophets named in the Qur'an

Four prophets named in the Qur'an appear on the list: Muhammad (محمد), Adam (آدم), Yusuf (يوسف) and Ibrahim (إبراهيم). Sura 12 of the Qur'an is named after Yusuf, sura 14 after Ibrahim and sura 47 after Muhammad. Ahmad (أحمد) is also one of the Prophet's names and occurs in this form in verse 6 of Surat al-Saff. Muhammad and Ahmad share the same Arabic root (ح م د, to praise), while Adam, Yusuf and Ibrahim are Arabic forms of names of Hebrew origin.

Names from Islamic history

Omar (عمر) was the name of the second caliph and Ali (علي) of the fourth. Zayd (زيد) is the name of Zayd ibn Haritha, the Prophet's adopted son, who is mentioned in verse 37 of Surat al-Ahzab. Hashim (هاشم) was the byname of the Prophet's great-grandfather, and Jordan's official name is the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Abdullah (عبد الله) and Abdulrahman (عبد الرحمن) are built on the word عبد, "servant"; a hadith in Sahih Muslim names these two as the names most beloved to God.

From word to name

Shahm (شهم, sixth) and Sanad (سند, seventh) are ordinary Arabic words that have become given names. In the dictionary, shahm describes someone clever, strong and steadfast, and sanad means support, something to lean on. We could not find a separate record of their meaning as given names, so the table gives the word meanings. Ghaith (غيث) means "rain", and the word occurs in the Qur'an (al-Hadid 57:20). Rayyan (ريان) means "well-watered, lush"; in the hadith literature it is the name of the gate of Paradise reserved for those who fast. For Kinan (كنان) we found no clear meaning in the sources.

An Abjad puzzle: neighbouring numbers

No two names on the list share the same Abjad value. But some sit just one step apart, and in a few cases the reason lies in the letters:

• Ibrahim 259, Karam 260, Rayyan 261: three consecutive numbers. The three names do share some letters (ر in all three, م in Ibrahim and Karam), but their values falling in a row is pure coincidence.
• Shahm 345, Hashim 346: no coincidence here. شهم and هاشم use the same three letters (ش، ه، م); the extra alif (1) in Hashim makes the difference.
• Muhammad 92, Ahmad 53: both contain the letters ح م د (52). The opening م (40) of Muhammad against the opening أ (1) of Ahmad makes a gap of 39.
• Abdullah 142, Abdulrahman 405: the shared part is عبد (76); the difference comes from the second word.

First letters and extremes

Using the classical classification applied in our reports (some authors order the letters differently), six of the top 10 names begin with a Fire letter: Muhammad, Adam, Ahmad, Shahm, Amir and Hashim. Two begin with Water (Sanad, Karam), one with Air (Yusuf) and one with Earth (Omar). Ranks 11 to 21 look different: seven of those 11 names begin with an Earth letter. Yusuf is the only name on the whole list that begins with an Air letter.

The highest value belongs to Ghaith: غيث = 1510, of which 1000 comes from the letter غ alone. The lowest is Zayd: ز (7) + ي (10) + د (4) = 21.

A note on spelling: writing Abdullah as one word (عبدالله) or two does not change the value; both are 142. The long alif (آ) at the start of Adam also counts as a single alif: آدم = 45. No spelling is "more blessed" than another, but any analysis should first settle which spelling it works from.

A name's Abjad value on its own is not an analysis. In the Abjad tradition, the real question is how that number fits together with the mother's and father's names, and a child's yıldızname (star chart) is calculated with the mother's name. The same name, Yusuf, can point to a quite different picture in different families.

Quick questions

Muhammad, Mohammed or Mohamed? These are only different Latin spellings of the same name. In Arabic it is always محمد, with a value of 92.

Does being No. 1 make a name "luckier"? No. The rank only shows how many families chose the name; in the Abjad tradition a value has nothing to do with popularity.

Are there lists for 2024 and 2025? Yes, but only the top four or five names were announced for those years; we cover them in a separate article.

Source: Jordan Civil Status and Passports Department (CSPD), 2023 annual report and statements; press account: Akhbar Hayat, 29 October 2024. The numbers are counts of Jordanian baby boys born in 2023 who were given each name, published for the top seven names only.

Note: Name meanings are based on common dictionary information, and Arabic spellings may vary between sources. Abjad values and element interpretations are for information, based on the Abjad tradition, and do not imply certainty or any guarantee.