SULAIMANI, Kurdistan Region — At a school in the Kurdistan Region, 125 students are named "Mohammed," making it difficult for teachers and administrators to interact with their pupils.
"We also have more students with Arabic names, especially Mohammed, in the 7th, 8th, and 9th classes," said
He works at Sarsiyan School in Hajiyawa town in Sulaimani province. The school has 1,034 students, including 536 boys.
"But in the primary classes like 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, we have fewer and the names are mostly Kurdish,"
The solution? Many use nicknames or resort to calling them by their fathers' names, which is often people in the Middle East's middle name.
The students say they use other "tricks."
"For example we call one Hamatall and another Hama," student Mohammed Khdir said.
In addition to the name's religious significance in Islam, one of the most famous Kurdish leaders in the 20th century was Qazi Muhammad.
Reporting by Sawen Saeed