Recorded in the Romanish spellings of Ahmad and Ahmed, this is a famous Muslim name. Curiously it has been recorded in the church registers of the diocese of Greater London since mid Victorian times. In fact it is lucky that we have those recordings as they are not available to us as Romanish recordings in most other parts of the world. Hereditary surnames as they have been known in the West for at least eight centuries, are a recent introduction in many parts of the world, some countries only adopting them in the past fifty years, and then only because of the need for a standardised spelling of family names, brought on by taxation, the telephone, and now the computer. Almost all Muslim names are related to or descended from the Prophet Mohammed. This name means "the richly praised one", and Ahmed/Ahmad derives from the same root of "hmd" meaning praise, and translates as the "most praiseworthy". Many Muslim names originate from this same source of "hmd", and it is said that these names are the favourites in Arabic nomenclature. Although early recordings of the surname are almost non existent, we do have the interesting one of Basile Bartine Ahmed, who married Jane Randle at St Leonards church, Shoreditch, in the city of London, on Septemner 30th 1860.

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