Press Release 18/04/2018
Ane and Markel continued to be the most popular names amongst newborns in the Basque Country
Ane has been the favourite name for girls since 1996
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 2014 and 2016 in the Basque Country. June and Nahia were in second and third place, followed by Irati, Laia and Nora.
Markel is the preferred name for boys, followed by Jon and Aimar. After these, the names most used were Ibai, Julen and Ander.
In the group of the 25 most popular names for the period 2014-2016, amongst the girls names, Libe and Maren entered and Aitana and Garazi left, compared to the period 2012-2014. Regarding boys names, Hodei and Izei entered, replacing Aitor and Asier.
The civil registry allows a maximum of two single names or one compound 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, amongst others, although they are treated as different names.
Mothers of foreign nationality also chose Basque names
If the nationality of mothers is taken into account, those with foreign nationality also preferred Basque names, but with differences as regards the general ranking. In the case of girls, there were two Basque names amongst the top five: Nahia and Haizea in third and fifth place, respectively; although top of the list was Sara, of Hebrew origin, followed by Sofía, of Greek origin, and in fourth place Aya, of Arabic origin. Amongst the boys, the Basque name Ander was in fifth place; first place goes to Adam, a Hebrew name, second to Mohamed, of Arabic origin, third place goes to Daniel and fourth place to David, biblical names also of Hebrew origin.
The most common names for mothers were Ainhoa and Leire and amongst fathers they were Aitor and David
The 10 most common names amongst women who were mothers in the 2014-2016 period were Ainhoa, Leire, Nerea, María, Amaia, Ainara, Laura, Marta, Cristina and Estibaliz. For this generation of women, born on the whole between 1976 and 1985, the 3 most common names were Basque, but Castilian names were still very prevalent, and in particular compound names that include María.
Regarding men who were fathers in these years, the 10 most repeated names were Aitor, David, Iker, Javier, Mikel, Jon, Asier, Gorka, Iñigo and Iñaki. In this case they were born mainly between 1974 and 1983, 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