Press Release 10/12/2021

BIRTH STATISTICS - Most popular names. 2018-2020

The most popular names for girls born in the Basque Country in the last three years were Ane, Laia and June and for boys, Markel, Jon and Julen

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 2018 and 2020 in the Basque Country. Laia and June were in second and third place, followed by Nahia, Irati and Izaro.

Markel is the preferred name for boys, followed by Jon and Julen. After these, the names most used were Ibai, Aimar and Martin/Martín.

In the group of the 25 most popular names for the period 2018-2020, among the girls names, Elaia and Mara entered and Iraia and Alba left, compared to the period 2016-2018. Regarding boys names, Mateo and Ekain entered, replacing Beñat and Alain.

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.

Basque names predominated, including when the mothers were foreign nationals

The most popular names were usually Basque, some registered with different spellings; as was the case with Ane-Anne, June-Yune-Iune, Leire-Leyre, Jon-Ion and Aritz-Haritz, among others; although they are treated as different names.

The most popular names for boys and girls whose mothers were foreign nationals (27% of births in this period) were different from those above. The most popular boys names in this period, were, in this order, in first place, Mohamed, of Arabic origin; in second place, Adam, a Hebrew name; third place goes to Amir, in fourth place was Mateo, and in fifth place, Julen.

In the case of girls, the most popular name was Sofia or Sofía, of Greek origin; followed by Sara, of Hebrew origin. The third most popular name was Alaia, a Basque name (although it also has meaning in Arabic) In fourth place was Amira, of Arabic origin. In fifth place was Nahia, another Basque name.



The most common names of mothers were Leire, Nerea and María, and of fathers, Mikel, Aitor and David

Of the total of 46,247 births in the period 2018-2020, the 10 most common names among women who were mothers in the 2018-2020 period were Leire, Nerea, María, Amaia, Ainhoa, Laura, Naiara, Ainara, Cristina and Estibaliz. For this generation of women, born on the whole between 1977 and 1992, 5 of the 10 most common names were Basque, but Castilian names and compound names that include María were still very prevalent.

Regarding men who were fathers in these years, the 10 most repeated names were Mikel, Aitor, David, Jon, Iker, Javier, Asier, Iñigo, Gorka and Xabier. In this case they were born mainly between 1975 and 1989, a period in which compound names gave way to single names and Basque names were already predominant.

For further information:

Eustat - Euskal Estatistika Erakundea / Basque Statistics Institute C/ Donostia-San Sebastián, 1 01010 Vitoria-Gasteiz Press Service: servicioprensa@eustat.eus Tel.: 945 01 75 62