Tempting to conclude, therefore, that most babies are born Muslim. Not so. In recent years British parents have adopted with enthusiasm the regrettable practice (originating, I believe, in the US) of bestowing invented, synthetic, hybrid or otherwise strange names on their offspring. Rather than, as in the past, choosing a name from a well-tried, familiar catalogue of a few dozen or so, parents now have a virtually infinite choice. Muslim parents, by contrast, stick with the traditional practice of calling their firstborn son Mahommed (or one of the variant spellings). It doesn't take a great deal of mathematical skill to realise that the latter will therefore occupy a place in the favourite-name league table which is is quite unrelated to the relative numbers of muslim and non-muslim families.