Press release 29.05.12
Iker and Ane continued to be the most popular names amongst newborns
Parents favoured names that were Basque and single
Ane, as has been the case since 1996, was the top ranking first name for girls chosen by parents, according to information provided by Eustat on births that occurred between 2008 and 2010 in the Basque Country. June and Uxue were in second and third place, followed by Irati, Nahia and Izaro.
Iker also continued to be the preferred name given to boys by their parents, followed by Markel and Oier. After these, the names most used were Jon, Unai and Ander.
The Civil Register allows a maximum of two single names and one compound; although this is the case, parents opted for one single name. In the list of the hundred most popular names there was only one compound name for boys, Jon Ander; in the case of girls, compound names with María, so common in the past, do not appear on the list.
Different spelling for the same name
Basque names predominated, some registered with different spellings, as was the case with Ane-Anne, Itxaso-Itsaso, Leire-Leyre, Jon-Ion, Aritz-Haritz. In all of these cases, the most popular way to express the name was that which appeared in first place, but those appearing as second spellings also appeared amongst the 120 most frequent names.
Except for the case of María and Miren, the Basque forms of names predominated those in Spanish; this was the case for Ane and Ana, Xabier and Javier, Jon and Juan, Mikel and Miguel.
In particular, in Birth Statistics for 2010, 1876 different names for girls and 1788 for boys were registered. Out of these names, 1288 in the case of girls and 1294 in the case of boys appeared only once, amongst which featured Chinese, African, Arab, Italian and Anglo-Saxon names. This situation is very different to that which occurred 10 years previously; in the year 2000, 1024 different names for girls and 900 for boys were registered, with around 600 appearing only once.
Mothers of foreign nationality also opted for Basque names
If we look at the nationality of Mothers, those with foreign nationality also chose Basque names on the whole, but with differences as regards general preferences. Sara was the most popular name in the case of girls, followed by Naiara, Ainara, Ainhoa and Leire. Amongst boys, Iker, Mikel and Ander were the most popular; but in fourth and fifth place were names of Arabic origin: Rayan and Mohamed.
The most common name for mothers was Ainhoa and amongst fathers it was Aitor
The most common names amongst women who were mothers in the 2008-2010 period were: Ainhoa, Nerea, Leire, Sonia, Susana, Mónica, Amaia, María, Marta and Cristina. For this generation of women, born on the whole between 1970 and 1980, the 3 most common names were Basque, but Castilian names were still very prevalent. The most popular names were single names, although more than 16% of mothers had a name composed of María.
Regarding men who were fathers between 2008 and 2010, the 10 most repeated names were: Aitor, Javier, Iñigo, Asier, Francisco Javier, Oscar, David, Alberto, Iñaki and Mikel. In this case they were men born mainly between 1969 and 1979, a period in which compound names gave way to single names and Basque names started to become predominant.
For further information:
Basque Statistics Office
C/ Donostia-San Sebastián, 1 01010 Vitoria-Gasteiz
Tel: +34-945-01 75 00 Fax:+34-945-01 75 01 E-mail: eustat@eustat.es
Contact: Martín González Hernández
Tel:+34-945-01 75 49 Fax:+34-945-01 75 01
Further press releases on BIRTH STATISTICS of the Basque Country
Database on BIRTH STATISTICS of the Basque Country