Mohammed Is the Most Common New York Taxi Driver Name

If you ever want to meet a guy called Mohammed in the Big Apple, try hailing a taxi. The first name is incredibly common among the city's medallion-bearers, serving as a salutation for about 15 out of every 100 cabbies.

We know this thanks to Seth Kadish, a 31-year-old data scientist who's ranked the 20 most popular first and last names for New York City taxi drivers. Using open data on 52,131 active cabbies, Kadish found that the top five names are, in order of frequency, Md (an abbreviation for Mohammed), Mohammad, Mohammed, Muhammad, and Mohamed. The most widely appearing surnames, meanwhile, are Singh, Rahman, Islam, Ahmed, and Khan.