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
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