A father holding a newborn baby. Photo: Kiefer Wolfowitz via Wikimedia Commons.

Muhammad and Tamar were the most popular baby names in Israel this year, the country’s Population and Immigration Authority announced on Monday.

Releasing a raft of government statistics ahead of Rosh Hashanah, the authority revealed that, unsurprisingly, Muhammad, extremely common in the Arab sector, was the top boy’s name in Israel, which was also the case last year.

The Hebrew news site Walla reported that the next most popular boy’s names were Yosef, Ariel, Omar, Adam, David, Daniel, Lavi, Eitan, and Uri. The most popular name among the Jewish population was Ariel, followed by David and Lavi.

The most popular name for girls was Tamar, followed by Abigail, Miriam, Sarah, Adele, Yael, Shira, Noya, and Leah.

Israel’s general population statistics also looked promising, with 168,441 new births and 41,165 deaths in the past year. Some 24,496 new immigrants arrived in the country. A total of 61,181 Israelis were married during the year, while 24,868 got divorced.

Source:http://www.algemeiner.com/category/news/feed/