Fire crews tackle Havenstreet cottage blaze
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Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Revealed: The most popular baby names in YOUR area - as figures suggest up to 9% of boys now get called Muhammad in parts of country
The Daily Mail's new search tool reveals the most popular boys' and girls' names in your area. Simply type in your postcode below to find out. Our tool – built with Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures released last month – also lists the ten most common names across your wider region. For example, Alexander topped the tables for boys born in Kensington and Chelsea. Across London as a whole, however, Muhammad was by far the most popular, with 1,044 boys given that name. Noah (595) ranked second. Daily Mail analysis suggests nearly 9 per cent of boys born in parts of England and Wales last year were named Muhammad. Muhammad, or the slightly different spelling of Mohammed, was the most common name in 33 of 318 authorities. It was trumped only by Oliver, which was crowned the most popular in 109 areas. This is despite Muhammad being the most popular name nationwide. The same ONS data, spanning England and Wales, revealed 5,721 boys were given the specific spelling of Muhammad in 2024. That marked an increase of 23 per cent in a year. Noah came in second, with Oliver in third, just as they did in 2023. In Pendle, just outside Bradford, the same statistics suggested 8.9 per cent of boys born in 2024 were named Muhammad – the highest rate in England and Wales. Blackburn with Darwen (8.6 per cent) and Bradford (7.4 per cent) followed in second and third spot. The figures were calculated using separate birth statistics published by the ONS. The ONS only shared the most popular name for each authority, meaning the exact number of boys born called Muhammad is unknown in the majority of areas. Moshe, a Hebrew name referring to the biblical figure of Moses, proved the most popular boys' name in the London borough of Hackney. Nineteen boys were given this name – or a one per cent share of the 1,865 live male births recorded there in 2024. Mohammed, a different spelling to the one crowned most popular in 2024, entered the top 100 boys' names for England and Wales 100 years ago, debuting at 91st in 1924. Its prevalence dropped considerably in the lead up to and during WW2 but began to rise in the 1960s. That particular iteration of the name was the only one to appear in the ONS' top 100 data from 1924 until Mohammad joined in the early 1980s. Muhammad, now the most popular of the trio, first broke into the top 100 in the mid-1980s and has seen the fastest growth of all three iterations since. The name means praiseworthy' or 'commendable' and stems from the Arabic word 'hamad', meaning 'to praise'. The spelling is shared with the founder of Islam – the prophet Muhammad. Other spellings listed in the ONS report include: Mohamad, Muhamad, Muhamed, Mohammod. Hyphenated variations include Muhammad-Ibrahim and Muhammad-Adam. Increasing sizes of Muslim communities across the UK fuelled by immigration, as well as the popularity of sporting figures such as Mo Farah and Mohamed Salah are likely to have sparked the increase. The ONS only provides figures based on the exact spelling and do not group names, as some groupings are subjective and not straightforward. For example, if multiple spelling were grouped under one umbrella name, Theodore (8th in 2024, 2,761 and Theo (12th in 2024, 2,387) would be far above Noah. 2023 marked the second time just one spelling of the Muhammad topped the charts on its own. For girls, Olivia took the top spot again, with 2,761 namings making it the undisputed queen of girls names for nine years running. Amelia came in at number two for the second year in a row, with 2,448 namings and Lily, which sat in fourth spot last year, ranked third (2,185). Royal names have continued to fall in popularity on the whole. George ranked sixth with 3,257 babies being given the name and William came in 27th. Louis came in 47th for boys and Charlotte ranked 23rd for girls. Names given to baby boys less than five times in 2024 include Yanky, Teddy-Bear, Awesome and Beckham. Names given to baby girls less than five times include Orchid, Poem, Sicily and Everest.
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Moment Grade I-listed manor is engulfed in flames - as crews battle to extinguish inferno
A major fire has engulfed a Grade I-listed building in Merseyside as local residents have begun lamenting the blaze as a 'travesty' and 'tragic end' to the historic landmark. Dozens of firefighters have already spent hours tackling the blaze, which erupted on Tuesday evening at the dilapidated Woolton Hall. Videos and pictures being shared widely online show flames taking hold at the three-storey property in Speke Road, Liverpool, while neighbours have reported seeing the smoke from miles away. Woolton Hall is one of the oldest buildings in the city and dates back to 1704. Over the centuries it has been a manor home, a private school and an army hospital. It was saved from demolition in the 1980s and granted Grade I-listed status. The building was previously saved from a fire in 2019 and was added to Historic England's Heritage at Risk register as a Category A site two years later. Merseyside Fire and Rescue said: 'There are currently nine fire engines and an aerial appliance on scene with the aerial appliance and main jet hoses in use fighting the fire to the exterior of the building. 'A multi-agency meeting has taken place with police and a building surveyor, who has assessed the building and advised it would be unsafe to commit firefighters to the interior of the building. 'The incident continues and will do for some considerable time.' Jonathon Wild has been campaigning for years to save the historic building from ruin. He said: 'This is the same as Liverpool Cathedral going on fire. The same category listing. 'I am absolutely devastated that this has happened and I ask that the powers that be hold a full investigation in to this fire and the outcome is that this building is somehow rebuilt.' Drivers were warned to stay away from the area, while residents have been warned to keep their doors and windows closed.
The Independent
3 hours ago
- The Independent
A fire is burning one of the world's tallest trees near the Oregon coast
Authorities in Oregon are trying to extinguish a fire that is burning in one of the world's tallest trees near the state's southern coast. The Doerner Fir, a coastal Douglas Fir tree over 325 feet (99 meters) tall and estimated to be over 450 years old, has been burning since Saturday in Coos County in Oregon's Coast Range. An infrared drone flight on Tuesday showed no active flames or smoke at the top of the tree, but it detected heat within a cavity in the tree trunk some 280 feet high, federal Bureau of Land Management spokesperson Megan Harper said. Figuring out how to approach the tree from the side to douse the cavity with water has been a challenge, Harper said. Various options have been discussed, including building scaffolding or climbing adjacent trees for better positioning, or letting it smolder and monitoring to see if it reignites. Crews remained onsite Tuesday and a helicopter was on standby in case of needed water drops, she added. The Coos Forest Protective Association said Monday that helicopter bucket drops had reduced fire activity near the top of the tree. It added that sprinklers were placed at the base of the tree, where containment lines were also constructed to prevent further fire spread. The fire may impact the tree's standing in global height rankings, Harper said. 'We've lost about 50 feet of it, just from fire and pieces falling out," she said, noting that the 50 feet (15 meters) were lost through the top burning. 'So I don't know where it'll stand after this, but it's still a magnificent tree.' The cause of the fire has not been determined and is under investigation. It is the only tree on fire in the immediate vicinity, and investigators are looking at lightning data to see if there were any recent strikes in the area, Harper said. For now, the tree is not at risk of fully burning down, according to Harper. 'Right now, that is not a danger,' she said. 'The tree is so big, it's got so much mass that it would take a while for it to burn all the way through the tree." Meanwhile, those involved in the firefighting efforts want to do everything possible to save the historic tree, Harper said. 'I think people really love it,' she said of the tree. 'There's a lot of history there, and so we don't want to lose it."
