Hugo & Lucia Head The Most Popular Baby Names In Spain

The latest data for new births in Spain by the country´s National Statistics Institute (INE) has been published showing the most popular new baby names.

Hugo is the favourite name for newborn boys, while Lucia continues to be the top name for girls across Spain.

In the Madrid region Lucía heads the list for girls and Mateo for boys.

The newborn names trend show that the country is shying away from the traditonal and typical names of the past – Antonio still remains the most popular name – over 650,000 people carry this compared to 86,000 with Hugo but the trend is clearly away.

In 1930, 9% of all boys were christened Antonio, and 7% Jose – by 2020 the figures for both are 1%.

The 2020 figures show that there were 215,995 boys born in Spain and 202,851 girls.

Of the most popular girls names chosen in 2020, Lucia ( 3,432),Sofia (3,190) and Martina (3,042) headed the list for girls. While for boys, Hugo was chosen by 3,313, Mateo, 3,248 and 3,144 opted for Martin.

Hugo returned to the No1 position having overtaken Lucas which had claimed the top sport for the last five years.

Lucia continues to be the most popular name – a position which it has had for most of the last 15 years.

You can check the frequency of a name at the epdata website

Neither the lead boy or girl names take into account the large number of composite names that include it – so for example there are hundreds of composite names with Lucia – Olga, Ana and Maria all feature highly while Victor Hugo remains a popular composite along with more the more obscure Guillermo and Albertos.

The data continues to show important regional differences particularly so in areas which have a different naming tradition such as the Basque Country and Galicia and to a certain extent Catalunia as well.

In the Basque Country , the most popular names for boys are Markel and Julen, while for girls its Ane and Izaro..

In Catalunia the top names chosen were Marc and Leo with Emma and Julia for girls.