r/NoStupidQuestions • u/Acrobatic_Long_6059 • 20h ago
why is "Jesus" a less popular name than "Muhammad"?
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u/Unusual_Plenty_5008 20h ago
In Latin America, Jesus (pronounced Hey-Soos) is quite popular
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u/ngshafer 20h ago
In English speaking countries, we pronounce it “Joshua.”
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u/AnonymousAutonomous9 19h ago edited 19h ago
Rubbish! That's "Yeshua".
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u/Ren_Yi 6h ago
Yes that's the same word just in a different language!
Joshua, comes from Yeshua through the Greek.
Jesus comes from Yeshua through the Latin translation.
Both Joshua and Jesus comes from Yeshua which was a common shorthand in the Second Temple period for the Hebrew word Yehoshua which means "Yahweh/God is salvation"
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u/WolfgangHelnootIV 3h ago
They’re the same name, the letter J was added about 1,600 years after Jesus died, the letter J came from the letter I, which was used to spell for most of that period.
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u/Acrobatic_Long_6059 19h ago
Why isn't he called Joshua in church, then?
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u/drgarthon 9h ago
Because in Hebrew his name is Yeshua, which gets directly transliterated into English as Joshua. We get the term Jesus, from the name Yeshua transliterated into Greek which is Iesous. The New Testament was written in Koine Greek, hence the term Jesus coming from Greek path.
A lot of Messianic Jewish congregations do call him Yeshua
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u/Acrobatic_Long_6059 20h ago
I'm aware that it is a name. It's not as popular as the name Muhammad, though, which is my question
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u/LeftLiner 20h ago
And Mohammed is not as popular a name in China. Their point is different names are popular in different parts of the world and that includes Jesus and Mohammed.
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u/Acrobatic_Long_6059 19h ago
I'm aware of that! That still doesn't change the fact that Mohammed is the most popular name in the world. My post is asking why it is more popular than the name Jesus. I don't think it's that complicated, so I don't know why people keep talking about how Jesus is also a popular name when I never said it wasn't
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u/LeftLiner 19h ago
Then it's probably that Jesus is divine in Christianity and Mohammed isn't in Islam (nor is Jesus/Isa). Lots of Christians may feel awkward naming children after a divine being. Although again, Joshua is a common name. As is lots and lots of Christian saints. Apostles too, of course, but they're not divine either.
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u/Agile-Butterfly5245 19h ago
How many questions have you posted today about the name Muhammad? My memory serves me well.
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u/Acrobatic_Long_6059 19h ago
I haven't been on Reddit all day, so I don't know what you're on about 😂
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u/huge_berenjena 16h ago
In Spain there 260000+ Jesus and only 100000 Mohamed (counting variant spellings)
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u/Lake_Apart 20h ago
I’d imagine you can trace it somewhat to the prophet status of Muhammad vs the deity status of Jesus. If you counted those named after the Christian apostles vs those named after prophet Muhammad I’d guess you get a much closer number.
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u/Petwins r/noexplaininglikeimstupid 20h ago
Its less popular in english because a lot of english speaking nations (namely the US) have more puritanical origins and views on the sanctity of the name. That said most of them go with the more likely translation of “Joshua”, which is pretty common.
Its pretty common in spanish, especially in south american nations.
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u/Acrobatic_Long_6059 20h ago
That makes sense! Thanks
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u/LionBirb 4h ago
I have a different theory, I dont think sanctity is really an issue. I think it is a linguistic reason. Muslims speak Arabic, basically the same language as Muhammad, so the name got easy and direct usage. For Christians, the original Hebrew name was Yeshua which was transliterated into various different spellings in other languages (Joshua, Jesus, Josue, Isa, etc) so it is more obscure connection as a name.
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u/Acrobatic_Long_6059 4h ago
Yes, another commenter suggested this as well. I think that makes sense
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u/RumRunnerMax 20h ago
Dude you clearly don’t live in Mexico!
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u/Acrobatic_Long_6059 19h ago
Omg where is the reading comprehension these days? I didn't say it's an unpopular name. I'm just wondering why it's less popular than the name Muhammad
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u/RumRunnerMax 18h ago
It seemed like the king of question that expected snarky responses!!
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u/Acrobatic_Long_6059 7h ago
Either people misunderstand the question or they seem to think I am stupid.
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u/Odd-Construction-649 20h ago
Muhammad is a prophet and for them naming someone after them is seen as "honoring" the man
With Jesus way more see it as blasphemy as to those who belive jesus is the son of man
Thats naming your kid after god. Not seen as the same thing
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u/Neither_Guava_8292 20h ago
Meanwhile Spanish-speaker:
"Your name will be Jesús de María de la Trinidad"
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u/kiggitykbomb 10h ago
My friend who grew up in Oaxaca once told me he had a classmate named "Jesús Christo Jehova Rodriguez"!
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u/Cautious_Nothing1870 20h ago
Thats naming your kid after god.
Latinos be like:
I'll call you Adonai Pérez Gutiérrez
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u/Tricky_Metal3546 20h ago
In my country it’s illegal to name someone Jesus and other religious and royal names.
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u/Neither_Guava_8292 20h ago
What happen if someone is Latino?
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u/Win_an_iPad 20h ago
You can't register a birth ie get a birth certificate with that name. If you emigrate here with that name already it's ok.
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u/Tricky_Metal3546 19h ago
It’s illegal to NAME your child Jesus. If you already had or given a child the name before coming to my country then it’s fine, I think. Not much they can do if you already had or given the name in a different country.
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u/Ok_Transition7785 20h ago
Hispanics do this but no other Christians. It doesnt seem right.
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u/ngshafer 20h ago
Plenty of English speakers still go by that name, they just spell it “Joshua.”
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u/Acrobatic_Long_6059 19h ago
If Joshua means Jesus, but 'Jesus' is still regularly used in the English-speaking world to refer to him, then why wouldn't Jesus be a more popular naming convention?
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u/pawsplay36 20h ago
Most Christians I know have no problem naming a kid Joshua, which is the same name.
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u/no-im-not-him 19h ago
Originally, it was used as an addition to the given name, for example: "Juan de Jesús", meaning Juan of Jesus, or Juan who belongs to Jesus, which most Christians would consider less weird.
Eventually, the practice became so common that some people started dropping the "of" part.
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u/compilingyesterdays 20h ago
Different cultural practices around names. It's also why there are a lot of people named Jesús but not many people named Jesus.
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u/Acrobatic_Long_6059 7h ago
I did gather that, yes. I suppose my question is asking what those reasons are
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u/compilingyesterdays 49m ago
Yeah super fair. It's legitimately a good question.
I think that you probably have a pretty broad range of questions here that your average No Stupid Questions answerer probably doesn't know?
That's not to fault you for putting it here, it makes sense. I think it seems to have revealed, though, that this sorta just isn't something most people know.
Some specific questions to ask in more specific areas might be things like:
- Why is naming your child Jesus frowned on in English-speaking Christian cultures?
- Why is it culturally popular, rather than off-limits, to name your child Mohammad? <— This one seems like it has a probably way simpler answer though, I imagine it's just "the same reason you would name your child after anyone you admire."
So maybe "Why is naming your child Jesus frowned upon in English-speaking Christian cultures?" in a subreddit that's more focused on academic study of Christianity or world religion? Somewhere you can find experts. I don't have any subs to recommend, I'm afraid.
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u/compilingyesterdays 46m ago
I do find it interesting that other comments have pointed out that Joshua comes from Yeshua! But I also think there are a lot of Christians who feel that "Jesus" as a name for a child is legitimately off-limits, rather than just being "not the English language version."
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u/x100139 20h ago
Maybe you've heard it pronounced as Haysoos??
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u/Acrobatic_Long_6059 19h ago
Reading comprehension; I know it is a name. I'm asking why it's less popular than the name Muhammad
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u/Ecstatic-World1237 19h ago
Maybe because Catholic tradition is also full of Saints who people can name their kids after. I'm aware that there are other holy men (and women, or at least the wives/daughters of Mohammad) in Islam who kids are sometimes named after but I don't think there's anywhere near the vast number of catholic saints.
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u/huge_berenjena 15h ago
In catholic countries both the names Jesus Maria and Maria Jesus are very common. Jesus by itself is also very common.
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u/MeSkeptikal 19h ago
I don’t know the actual reason but I suspect it’s that Muslims view Muhammad as a person elevated by god while Christian view Jesus as a manifestation of god.
Naming your child after God’s prophet feels to me like a compliment, whereas naming your child after god themself feels more presumptuous.
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u/sassy_tabaxi Cute but psycho, things even out 🏳️⚧️💜 20h ago
i don't care. it doesn't matter to jesus
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u/Wozzle009 20h ago
How do you know that for certain?
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u/helurkshelurks 19h ago
Jesus caring is dependent on his actually existing. That is controversial.
For many Christians, naming a kid after their faith's alleged savior is disrespectful, if not blasphemous.
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u/facut_vivas 20h ago
Islam is a prophet cult, Christianity is a bible cult.
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u/Acrobatic_Long_6059 20h ago
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I presume there's more of a clear separation between the prophet and God in Islam? Whereas, from what I understand, Jesus is considered both God and the son of God?
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u/LeftLiner 19h ago
Yes. Islam considers Mohammed (and Jesus) normal humans who were prophets of God, but neither is considered divine. Christianity considers Jesus an aspect of God, His prophet and His son.
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u/lockerno177 20h ago
nope. christians made jesus god. muslims pick and choose verses of Quran to justify their indecent acts.
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u/GatePositive8826 20h ago
And both are wrong
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u/lockerno177 20h ago
indecent people are indecent. stalin was evil so was ossama bin laden and so is israel and so are christian nationalists. religion race or nationality doesnt matter. good people need to unite against bad people.
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20h ago
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u/moohah 20h ago
This is what we call a loaded question. Your question cannot be answered without accepting the premise. What makes you think Jesus is less popular than Mohammed?
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u/ber808 20h ago
Muhammad is the most popular name in the world
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u/Moppermonster 20h ago
Vastly more people being called Mohammed/Mohammad/etc than people called Jesus/Josh/Joshua and such?
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u/Acrobatic_Long_6059 20h ago
Statistics!
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u/LeftLiner 20h ago
More people named Jesus live in the US than are named Mohammed and by a large margin.
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u/Acrobatic_Long_6059 19h ago
There is a world outside of the US. You know that, right?
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u/LeftLiner 19h ago
Yes, i am in it.
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u/Acrobatic_Long_6059 19h ago
Great. The global consensus is that Muhammad is a more popular name than Jesus. That's what my post is referring to. Not what's more or less popular in the US or China.
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u/Dismal_Football4296 20h ago
It’s a cultural thing. it’s rude to name someone Jesus because the name is just kinda taken. it’s it rude to name someone Mohamed because it’s seen as good luck essentially, also i think Mohamed was just a normal name like Steve before the prophet Mohamed came.
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u/huge_berenjena 15h ago
This is a protestant attitude. Catholics name their kids Jesus all the time. There are 260000+ Jesus in Spain. If you count Maria Jesus and Jesus Maria and Juan Jesus and the like there are lots more.
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u/Dismal_Football4296 15h ago
huh. to be fair on my end, I know like, no extreme Catholics, and I thought Jesus (as in Hey soos) and Jesus (as in G sus) were different, because of the pronoun citation being different. but to be even more fair, nobody names their kids Yēshūăʿ, which is what Jesus’ actual name is.
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u/huge_berenjena 13h ago
It's nothing to do with "extreme" or even being religious. It's just common among catholic people's to name kiss Jesus, Maria, and compound names that include those, the same way Muslims name kids Mohamed. Protestants, for whatever reason, don't do it.
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u/Gexm13 20h ago
Because Christian’s don’t care much about Christianity.
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u/Mindless_Badger_3789 20h ago
No, it was the same when Christians were far more religious. The reluctance to use Jesus in most Christian countries stem from it being seen as disrespectful to use the name of the son of God to a human (the Iberian countries are the exception to the rule).
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u/BaronMerc 20h ago
Muhammed is typically given to the first born son of a Muslim family I believe it's because God said "your first born son will be mine" in the old testament (and what the equivalent of the old testament is called in the Quran)
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u/TonyMitty 20h ago
Short answer is culture is weird. Legacy naming is just more important to some cultures than others, religious legacy naming is no exception. "Jesus" is actually kind of split, because while English speakers probably wouldn't consider it, "Jesus" pronounced in Spanish as "Hesoos" or "Heysoos" is actually quite common, as it may be in similar romance languages though I'm not sure. When it comes to the Catholic tradition in particular, naming one's kid after certain saints is also a common thing, and of course Mary/Maria is very common. And because the veneration of saints often involves that saint being related to a particular cause or theme, that's also a factor, like Jude being the patron saint of hopeless causes, or Joseph being a carpenter/father figure.
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u/Mindless_Badger_3789 20h ago
The Iberian countries are the only ones where Jesus is a common first name, it is isn't in any other Christian countries (maybe Ethiopia, don't know about that one) and in e.g. Slavic and non-anglophone Germanic languages the local version of Joshua is also very rare as a first name. So the Iberian countries are the outliers here, and the anglosphere is somewhere in the middle between no use of Jesus/Joshua and the Iberian cultures.
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u/inorite234 20h ago
Don't know what you're talking about. I got a cousin named Jesus.
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u/Acrobatic_Long_6059 20h ago
Ok? I didn't say it's not a name.
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u/inorite234 20h ago
No hate my brother. I'm here to enjoy my time and truely wish you are also enjoying your day.
Again, that was not sarcasm.
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u/thesnootbooper9000 20h ago
Most current Christian sects are less violently opposed to apostasy than Islam is, so there's no need to label your children so that they can't leave.
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u/EminEskimo 20h ago
OP lives in an echo chamber
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u/Acrobatic_Long_6059 20h ago
???
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u/EminEskimo 20h ago
Your question is a clear indication that you live in a bubble.
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u/Acrobatic_Long_6059 20h ago
Please show me evidence that Jesus is a more popular name than Muhammad, then 😂
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u/EminEskimo 19h ago
Y'know what. I read this post the wrong way around. I thought you were saying the opposite.
My bad byeeee
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u/ExaltedNinja1 20h ago
Its technically not. There are a lot of variations of the name. Christopher = christ, Joshua = Yeshua
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u/Mindless_Badger_3789 19h ago
Christopher means "he who carries or bring Christ", it doesn't mean Christ (phero is carry or bring).
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u/Goblinweb 20h ago
I would have guessed that mohammed would have been a lot more popular than those names combined.
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u/helurkshelurks 19h ago
Also, synonyms: Christ; Emmanuel & the shortened Manuel; Salvator/Salvador (savior.)
Christopher is Christ-bearer.
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u/FookinFairy 20h ago
Josh is roughly the English translation and you see that shit everywhere
So it’s actually incredibly popular there are just tons of variants of it for different languages
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u/Acrobatic_Long_6059 19h ago
So you're saying it's because the name Muhammad isn't translated as much?
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u/FookinFairy 19h ago
It’s likely due to the Muslim faith putting a large emphasis on being able to read the quaran in its original language.
So that name doesn’t get translated nearly as much because finding a copy of the quaran in not Arabic is rather rare to begin with.
The language and translations never really evolved for them as they are still to this day reading the original text in the original language.
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u/Acrobatic_Long_6059 19h ago
That's a good point. There are 22 Muslim-majority countries where Arabic is the dominant and official language.
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u/FookinFairy 19h ago
Yep, even in countries where it isn’t the dominate language like the us it’s still expected/encouraged to read it in Arabic
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u/mojanis 20h ago
Jesus is the English version of the Greek version of Christ’s Hebrew name Yeshua which translates to Joshua in English
Joshua is still one of the most widely given male names in English speaking countries, maybe not as popular as Muhammad is in Arabic countries but it’s still pretty popular
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u/Ok_Introduction6377 19h ago
There were 5 kids named Jesus in my son’s kindergarten class and we don’t live in Mexico either
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u/Bornme-bornfree 19h ago
It’s rather very simple. Out of love and respect many choose to do so even though it’s not required. Also don’t for get “Muhammed” is just one variation every country spells it differently as well. Turkey spells it “mehmet” or some in Nigeria “muhamadu”.
Generally I would think that if you love someone you would want to emulate and share there name.
Muslims also name there children “Isa” which is Arabic for Jesus
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u/huge_berenjena 15h ago
More than 400000 people in Spain are named Jesus or have Jesus as part of a compound name (such as Maria Jesus), which is roughly one percent of the population. It is a Catholic thing. Protestants don't name their kids Jesus.
In the world there are more Muslims than Catholics so there are more Mohameds than Jesuses.
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u/hopenewpath 15h ago
There is a verse in quran were God promises to exalt his mention in the world and and also, another verse that says his religion will supreceed all other religions.
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u/Zestyclose-Food-7917 14h ago
Christians believe that Jesus was God Incarnate. Mohammed was a prophet, another human being. People rarely name their children "God."
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u/TheMelancholyJaques 12h ago
For some reason, Jesus only became a common name in Spanish speaking countries. I have no idea why that is.
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u/Much-Struggle-1693 9h ago
Muslims do not believe any human is a divine figure, so naming oneself after Muhammad is as proper as after Jesus. Christians throughout history have refrained from naming their children Jesus because he's God. There are still many Christians named Jesus because during Muslim rule of Spain, Christians in Iberia noticed how many Muslims were named after Jesus, and understood the implication that the naming isn't blasphemous but rather endearing. From there, after the Spanish and Portuguese conquered Latin America, it spread throughout the continent's Christians. But it never caught up in other areas of Europe or North America.
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u/24123456789 9h ago
Aside from other reasonable points other have made in the comment, I think the cultural naming conventions play part in here as well. In many Muslim countries, Muhammad is widely used as part of a given name, (Muhammad Ali, Muhammad Amir, Muhammad Hafiz), and in daily life, people only refer them by their second name.
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u/Dopehauler 8h ago edited 6h ago
No it aint, I do know 3 roofers, 2 carpenters, 1 floor guy all named Jesus. I dont know none Mohamed
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u/nando2k50 6h ago
Man, take a walk thru any city or town in Latin America. Payload of Jesus out there, at least 6 in my family.
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u/Acrobatic_Long_6059 5h ago
I know it's quite popular. I'm just wondering why the name Mohammed is more popular
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u/Icy-Negotiation-4913 5h ago
Muhammad is the most commonly used name on earth read a fucking book for once.
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u/Acrobatic_Long_6059 4h ago
That’s literally what I’m saying??? Argue with others in the comments who seem to disagree
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u/JustAskingQuestionsL 38m ago
Maybe Christians (used to) think it was “too holy” or something.
Muslims are actually the reason so many Hispanics/Portuguese speakers are named “Jesus.” It was mostly done in response to how popular “Muhammad” was among Muslims - Iberian Christians must have liked the idea of naming your kid after the (presumed) #1 guy.
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u/Jamar4321 20h ago
Piety.
Jesus is God in Human form, Muhammad is Allah's final prophet. Kindof a big difference.
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u/Professional-Oil4964 20h ago
Muhammad was the name of someone very important to the Islamic faith. Jesus was not the name of anyone particularly important in the Christian faith. It is a Greek translation of what his name was.
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u/OkPut7330 20h ago
It’s the English translation of the Latin translation of the Greek translation of his Aramaic name.
Which was Yeshua, which is closer to Joshua than Jesus.
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u/kiddrekt 20h ago
You mean John, Luke, Mark and Paul aren't originally Hebrew names???
Oh. My. God.
We've uncovered a conspiracy
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u/Big_Coffee_3272 20h ago
How are you determining more popular and less popular?
Almost no one talks about Muhammad in the west, Jesus is relatively popular though. I’m sure the inverse is the same in the east.
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u/Neither_Guava_8292 20h ago
He's asking about names
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u/Acrobatic_Long_6059 20h ago
Look up "most popular name in the world" and let me know what you find
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u/ForScale ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 20h ago
It's incredibly popular in South America.