In my creative writing class, this guy wrote a story set in a strict Islamic society, which tangentially got me thinking about the roots of words. I looked up the root of the name "Mohammed", and found that the name translates literally to "he who (or that which) is highly praised/commendable."

I think that name is either divine will, or it's an honorific given to a person. You know, like the name Jesus Christ: "christ" is a Greek word that means the same thing as the Hebrew "messiah", or promised savior. After centuries of using it people think of Christ as part of his name, even though his human parents didn't call him that, and probably neither did anyone else while he was alive.

So what I'm wondering is, what was Mohammed's real name?