‘Yahya’ soars up baby name leaderboard - The Jewish Chronicle

The name ‘Yahya’ saw a larger increase in baby name popularity than any other male name in the top 100 in the UK last year.

The name, which is shared by the former leader of Hamas, Yahya Sinwar, gained 33 places in ranking from the previous year to become the 93rd most popular male name in the UK in 2024. Five hundred and eighty-three newborn boys in total were named Yahya last year in the UK.

Yahya Sinwar, who became leader of the terror group’s operations in the Gaza Strip in 2017, is considered to be the architect of the October 7 attacks, which saw some 1,200 people brutally murdered in Israel, about 250 taken captive and was the impetus behind the subsequent ongoing war between Israel and Hamas.

While there is no definite correlation between the increased popularity of the name and support for the terrorist also bearing the name, the calendar year from which the data is taken began just over two months after October 7.

'Yahya' becomes the 93rd most popular baby boy name in the UK in 2024[Missing Credit]

Hamas is designated as a terrorist organisation in the UK under the Terrorism Act 2000, making it illegal to show support for the group or its leaders.

Known as The Butcher of Khan Younis, Yahya Sinwar was the head of Hamas’s internal security force, al-Majd, and directly involved in rooting out and executing Palestinians suspected of collaborating with Israel.

Sinwar was sentenced to four life sentences in 1989 for planning the abduction and killing of Israeli soldiers and brutally murdering other Palestinians he accused of acting as informants or collaborators with Israel.

Recovered documents from a Hamas tunnel reveal that one of Yahya Sinwar's motivations for the October 7 attack was to disrupt Israel-Saudi peace talks. (Getty Images)AFP via Getty Images

Shortly before his arrest, he confessed to strangling dozens, burying bodies in mass graves, and personally carrying out killings. His reputation for brutality is widespread, with a former member of Israeli intelligence telling the Financial Times that Sinwar once forced a suspected informant to bury his own brother alive.

In 2004, while in Israeli prison, Sinwar underwent a lifesaving medical procedure by Israeli surgeons in an Israeli hospital to remove a fatal brain tumour

In 2011, after 22 years in prison, Sinwar was one of the 1,027 Palestinian prisoners released during the Gilad Shalit prisoner-soldier exchange deal.

He was killed during operations in southern Gaza, specifically in Rafah, around 16 October 2024.

According to the Office of National Statistics, which compiled the findings, baby name statistics are compiled from all live births that occur in one calendar year

After Yahya, the name that gained the second most ranking places is Vinnie. Mohammad gained the fourth largest ranking increase, up 15 places, while its other spelling variations, Mohammed, gained seven places to become the 21st most popular name in 2024, while Muhammad is the most popular boys' name in the country for the second year in a row.

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Yahya Sinwar

Babies