Press Release 07/10/2025

BIRTH STATISTICS. Most popular names 2022-2024

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

Ane has been the favourite name for girls since 1998

Ane was the top ranking first name for girls chosen mothers and fathers, as has been the case since 1998 taking the data from each three-year period, according to information provided by Eustat on births that occurred between 2022 and 2024 in the Basque Country. Laia and June were in second and third place, followed by Malen, Nora and Nahia.

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

In the group of the 25 most popular names among girls for the period 2022-2024 when compared with the period 2020-2022, Maren joined the list, whilst the name Naia left. The most popular boys names consist of Hugo, Paul, Izan and Liam, overtaking Iker, Ekhi, Adei and Hodei.

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-Lune, Leire-Leyre, Nahia-Naia, Jon-Ion and Aritz-Haritz, amongst others, although they are treated as different names.

Mothers of foreign nationality also chose Basque names for girls

If the nationality of mothers is taken into account, those with foreign nationality, 25.1% of total births in this period, also chose Basque names, especially for girls, but with differences regarding their general ranking. In the case of girls, there were two Basque names amongst the top five: Alaia (also an Arabic name) and Ainara, in first and fifth positions, respectively. Second on the list was Amira, followed by Sofia/Sofía and Sara, in fourth position.

In the case of boys, there were no Basque names amongst the top five, with Ander being the first to appear in tenth position. In first place was Adam, a name of Hebrew origin, Mohamed was in second place, of Arabic origin, in third place was Mateo, in fourth was Rayan and in fifth place was Liam.

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

Of the total of 40,026 births from 2022-2024, the 10 most common names among women who were mothers in this period were María, Leire, Nerea, Amaia, Ane, Laura, Ainhoa, Naiara, Maitane and Janire. For this generation of women, on the whole born between 1982 and 1995, eight out of the ten most common names were Basque, but Castilian names and compound names that include María were still prevalent.

Regarding men who were fathers in these years, the 10 most repeated names were Mikel, Jon, Aitor, Iker, David, Asier, Iñigo, Ander, Xabier and Javier. In this case they were born mainly between 1979 and 1993, 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