Press Release 14/05/2014
Ane and Markel are the most popular names amongst newborns in the Basque Country
Parents favoured names that were Basque and single
Ane was the top ranking first name for girls chosen by parents, as has been the case since 1996, according to information provided by Eustat on births that occurred between 2010 and 2012 in the Basque Country. June and Irati were in second and third place, followed by Nahia, Uxue and Izaro.
The preferred name given to boys by their parents was Merkel, followed by Jon and Iker. After these, the names most used were Oier, Ander and Unai.
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 were no compound names, even though it used to be a very frequent custom.
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 and Aritz-Haritz. 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.
The names Naia and Nahia deserve special mention as they can be different names. On the one hand, Naia can be a spelling variant of Nahia, which is the form currently accepted by Euskaltzaindia [the Royal Academy of the Basque Language], and this is possibly the most plausible explanation of why it comes eighth in the list of most popular names amongst newborns in the Basque Country. On the other hand, Naia exists in various other languages such as French, Catalan and English, and in Spain it's found in various toponyms. Finally, Nahia, with "h", is no doubt a Basque name and is in fourth place on the list of girls' names. With 1,104 cases, the two combined would reach first place, at 3.61% of girls.
Mothers of foreign nationality also opted for Basque names
If we look at the nationality of Mothers, those with foreign nationality also preferred Basque names, but with differences as regards the general ranking. In the case of girls, there were three Basque names amongst the top five: Naiara, Ainhoa and Nahia, although the first on the list is Sara, of Hebew origin. Amongst the boys, the Basque names Iker and Ander are in first and fourth place respectively; Adam - a Hebrew name - is in second place; Mohamed - of Arab origin - is in third; and in fifth place was Rayan, which has a number of possible origins.
The most common name for mothers was Ainhoa and amongst fathers it was Aitor
The 10 most common names amongst women who were mothers in the 2010-2012 period were Ainhoa, Leire, Nerea, Amaia, Sonia, María, Marta, Ainara, Susana and Mónica. For this generation of women, born on the whole between 1972 and 1982, the 3 most common names were Basque, but Castilian names were still very prevalent. Although the most popular names were single names, more than 14% of mothers had a name composed of María.
Regarding men who were fathers between 2010 and 2012, the 10 most repeated names were Aitor, Javier, David, Iñigo, Asier, Oscar, Gorka, Iker, Francisco Javier and Iñaki. In this case they were men born mainly between 1970 and 1980, a period in which compound names gave way to single names and Basque names started to become predominant.
For further information:
Eustat - Euskal Estatistika Erakundea / Instituto Vasco de Estadística
C/ Donostia-San Sebastián, 1 01010 Vitoria-Gasteiz
Press Service: servicioprensa@eustat.eus Tlf: 945 01 75 62
Further press releases on BIRTH STATISTICS of the Basque Country
Database on BIRTH STATISTICS of the Basque Country