WHAT WAS MUHAMMAD’S NAME?
According to specific traditions, Muhammad was initially given the name Qutam by his paternal grandfather Abd al-Muttalib, but was subsequently changed due to an alleged dreamed thst Muhammad’s mother saw, which informed her that his name will be Muhammad:
As for Quṯam b. ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib: his mother was Ṣafiyyah bt. Jundub, the mother of al-Ḥāriṯ b. ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib, and he died as a young boy. [Someone] other than al-Kalbī said: “He died three years before the birth of the Prophet, when he was a boy of nine years, whereupon ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib experienced great anguish, [for] he had been dear to him [and] brought him joy. Then, when the Messenger of God was born, ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib named him “Quṯam”, whereupon his mother ʾÂminah informed him that she had been shown in a dream [that she was] to name him “Muḥammad”—thus, he named him “Muḥammad” [instead].” (ʾAḥmad b. Yaḥyá al-Balāḏurī, Kitāb Jumal min ʾAnsāb al-ʾAšrāf, ed. Suhayl Zakkār & Riyāḍ Ziriklī [Beirut, Lebanon: Dār al-Fikr, 1997], Volume 4, p. 411)
This report was also quoted in:
Ṣibṭ Ibn al-Jawzī (ed. Muḥammad Barakāt & ʿAmmār Rayḥāwī), Mirʾât al-Zamān fī Tawārīḵ al-ʾAʿyan, Vol. 3 (Damascus, Syria: Dār al-Risālah al-ʿĀlamiyyah, 2013), p. 68.
ʿAlī b. Burhān al-Dīn al-Ḥalabī, al-Sīrah al-Ḥalabiyyah: ʾInsān al-ʿUyūn fī Sīrat al-ʾAmīn al-Maʾmūn, Vol. 3 (Beirut, Lebanon: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyyah, 1427 AH), p. 118.
Tawṯīq ʿurá al-ʾĪmān fī Tafḍīl Ḥabīb al-Raḥmān of Hibat Allāh b. ʿAbd al-Raḥīm al-Bārizī (d. 738/1337-1338)
FURTHER READING
JESUS CHRIST – THE MUHAMMAD OF THE QURAN?