If the names of our children reflect anything about the state of our culture, then the latest list of the most popular names for babies contains a positive message about Scotland.
The list reveals the top name for babies born in Glasgow last year was Mohammad, although its popularity does not reflect the fact many men use it as an honorific and choose to be known by their second name.
However, the fact that Mohammad, in all its variants and uses, was the most popular for babies last year will come as no surprise to Glaswegians as their city, and particularly the south side, has been home to Scottish Asians for at least four generations.
This has not been without its problems, and we should not for a minute assume that racism is not an issue, but in many ways Scotland is a multicultural society and has managed immigration well.
Indeed, Scotland will need more immigration if it is to tackle the imbalance between old and young and the Mohammads born last year, and next, will play their part in that. Theirs is a name that reflects their proud ethnic origin, but it also signals their membership of a wider, changing, multicultural community.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article