Press Release 23/10/2023

BIRTH STATISTICS. Most popular names 2020-2022

During the last three years, the most popular names for girls born in the Basque Country were Ane, Laia and June and Markel, Martin/Martín and Julen for boys

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 taking the data by three-year periods, according to information provided by Eustat on births that occurred between 2020 and 2022 in the Basque Country. Laia and June were in second and third place, followed by Nahia, Malen and Maddi.

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

In the group of the 25 most popular names for the period 2020-2022, among girls’ names, Lea and Libe entered and Maialen and Paula left, compared to the 2018-2020 period. Regarding boys’ names, Ekhi, Telmo, Leo and Adei entered, replacing Eneko, Hugo, Ekain and Aner.

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 spellings of the same name

Basque names predominated, some registered with different spellings, as was the case with Ane-Anne, June-Yune-Iune, 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, 28.5% of total births in this period, 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: Alaia (which also has meaning in Arabic) and Nahia in second and fifth place, respectively; although top of the list was Sofia/Sofía, of Greek origin; in third place was Sara, of Hebrew origin, and in fourth place Amira, of Arabic origin. Amongst the boys, Julen was in third place; first place goes to Adam, a Hebrew name, second to Mohamed, of Arabic origin, fourth to Mateo and fifth place to Amir.

The most common names for mothers were Leire, María and Nerea, and Mikel, Jon and David for fathers

Of the total of 42,632 births in the 2020-2022 period, the 10 most common names among women who were mothers in the 2020-2022 period were Leire, María, Nerea, Amaia, Laura, Ainhoa, Naiara, Ane, Ainara and Cristina. For this generation of women, on the whole born between 1980 and 1993, 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, Jon, David, Aitor, Iker, Asier, Iñigo, Xabier, Javier and Gorka. In this case they were born mainly between 1977 and 1991, 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