yes, citizen, that is what the respected scholar said, i.e. people named their sons muhammad in hope.
In his book Madarij un-Nabuwwat, Shaykh Abdul Haq Muhaddith writes (a very rough translation): The people of knowledge have said that it is one of the proofs of his prophethood that nobody was named Mohammad before him. The reason for this being that Allah took the safeguarding of this lofty name Himself so that there would be no ambiguity or doubt (due to this being a common name). However, when the time of the Prophet came nearer, the Ahle Kitab of those times were given the glad tidings about him and his name was revealed to them. Some of those people kept this name (Mohammad) for their children hoping that their child would be the one (the prophet). Madarij un-Nabuwwat, Vol 1, Pages 450 - 451, Shaykh Abdul Haq, Urdu Translation Mufti Ghulam Moinuddin Naeemi, Published by Mumtaz Academy, Lahore.
on noor tv just now, a scholar said that qadi iyad has written that there were children who were named muhammad even before our master sallAllahu 'alaihi wasallam. i thought the dear prophet salawatAllahi wa salamuhu 'alaih was the first to have this name.
