Press release 27/05/2010
Iker and Ane continue to be the most popular names among new-borns
Parents opted for single Basque names
Since 1996, Ane has been the top ranking first name that parents choOse for girls, according to information collected by Eustat on births in the Basque Country between 2006 and 2008. Uxue and Nahia were in second and third place, followed by Irati, June and Naroa.
Iker also continued to be the preferred boy’s name, followed by Jon and Unai. The next most popular names were Aimar, Markel and Ander.
The Civil Registry allows a maximum of two single and one combined name. However, most parents chose just one single name. There was only one combined name for boys, Jon Ander, on the list of the hundred most popular names. In the case of girls, combined names with Maria, which were once so popular, did not appear on the list.
Different spellings for the same name
Basque names predominated, some of which were registered with different spellings, such as Ane-Anne, Itxaso-Itsaso, Leire-Leyre, Jon-Ion or Aritz-Haritz. All these cases with different forms of the name, except for Ion, were among the top 100 names.
Except in the case of Maria and Miren, the Basque form of a name is more common than the Spanish version. This holds true for Ane and Ana, Xabier and Javier, Jon and Juan, and Mikel and Miguel.
In particular, birth statistics for 2008 showed 1,793 different names for girls and 1,713 for boys. Out of those, 1,239 girls' names and 1256 boys' appeared once one and they included Chinese, African, Arabic, Italian and Anglo-Saxon names, etc. These results show that the number of names used had increased by 71.3% in the case of girls and have double in the case of boys since 1999.
The most popular names among mothers was Ainhoa and Aitor among fathers
The most common names among the women who gave birth between 2006 and 2008 were: Ainhoa, Susana, Sonia, Nerea, Amaia, Mónica, Leire, Marta, Cristina and María. In this generation of women, most of whom were born at the end of the dictatorship and the beginning of the democracy (between 1969 and 1979), the most popular names were single ones, but there were more Spanish than Basque ones. In any event, over 20% of mothers had a combined name with Maria.
As far as the men who were fathers between 2006 and 2008, the 20 top names were: Aitor, Javier, Francisco Javier, Iñigo, Oscar, Asier, Alberto, José Antonio, Roberto and José Luis. In this case, there were mainly men born at the end of the dictatorship (between 1967 and 1977) and many of the names were combined and there were very few Basque ones.
For further information:
Euskal Estatistika-Erakundea / Instituto Vasco de Estadística
C/ Donostia-San Sebastián, 1 01010 Vitoria-Gasteiz
Tlf:+34-945-01 75 00 Fax:+34-945-01 75 01 E-mail: eustat@eustat.es
Contact: Martín González Hernández
Tlf:+34-945-01 75 49 Fax:+34-945-01 75 01
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