Macamathehou in Lincolnshire and the evidence for people named Muhammad in medieval England
The aim of the following draft is to offer some thoughts on a local name from thirteenth-century Lincolnshire,
Macamathehou, that involves a version of the Arabic name Muhammad (Middle English
Makomet/Macamethe, Old French
Mahomet). Whilst it has been plausibly seen as an instance of a variant of the name of Muhammed being used to mean 'heathen', 'pagan idol' or similar (based on the false but common medieval Christian belief that the prophet Muhammad was worshipped as a god), here in reference to a barrow that was considered to be a pre-Christian site, it is worth noting that there are a small number of people with names and surnames derived from Arabic