Mateo and Martín for boys and Lucía and Sofía for girls are the most repeated names among newborns in most communities, although parents in autonomous regions with languages other than Spanish often choose different names, such as Marc, Markel, Ane or Amira.
According to data published this week by the National Institute of Statistics (INE), Mateo is the most chosen male name in Aragon, Asturias, Canary Islands, Castilla-La Mancha, Valencia, Galicia and Madrid; the second in Cantabria and Castilla y León and the third in La Rioja.
For its part, Lucía is the most common for baby girls in Aragon, Cantabria, Castilla y León, Castilla-La Mancha, Extremadura, Madrid and Navarra; the second in Andalusia and Murcia; the third in Balearic Islands, Valencia, La Rioja and Melilla; the fourth in Catalonia and the fifth in the Canary Islands.
Lucía is also the most chosen for girls in the whole of Spain, ahead of Sofía, Martina, María and Julia, while Mateo is the second in the whole country, behind Hugo and followed by Martín, Lucas and Leo.
Martín is the first in Cantabria, Castilla y León and La Rioja; Manuel in Andalusia and Extremadura and Hugo in Murcia; just like Sofía in Asturias, Canary Islands, Valencia, Galicia and La Rioja and María in Andalusia and Murcia.
Differences in autonomous regions with other languages
In several of the communities where a co-official language is spoken or Spanish is not the mother tongue of many of the inhabitants, the most used names change.
Thus, Marc is the most used male name in Balearic Islands and Catalonia; Julen in Navarra; Markel in Basque Country; Amir in Ceuta and Mohamed in Melilla; while Martina is the most common girl's name in Balearic Islands, Julia in Catalonia, Ane in Basque Country and Amira in Ceuta and Melilla.
In the case of Catalonia, the five most used boy's names are Marc, Jan, Nil, Pol and Leo; in Ceuta they are Amir, Mohamed, Akram, Haron and Rayan and in Melilla Mohamed, Amir, Maher, Rayan and Adam.
Preferences have changed over the years
The INE statistics reflect the changes registered in Spain also when choosing the name of the children. In the last two decades, of the first five of each community, as of the whole country, a few names have disappeared.
None of the five most common boy's names 20 years ago, in 2002, in the whole country is already in that classification: Alejandro has gone from first to eleventh, Pablo from second to thirteenth, Daniel from third to tenth, David from fourth to nineteenth and Adrián from fifth to fifteenth.
On the contrary, the five that now appear as the five preferred were 20 years ago very far from being so: Hugo occupied the 50th place, Martín the 74th, Lucas the 69th and Mateo and Leo did not even appear among the first 100.
The change in preferences has been smaller in female names: of the five favorites 20 years ago, María has only dropped from first to fourth place and Lucía, now first, was already second, and Paula has dropped from third to sixth, although Laura has fallen from fourth to forty-third and Marta from fifth to thirty-seventh.
The same occurs in bilingual communities, such as Catalonia, where Marc remains at the top for two decades, but of the following only Pol appeared among the first 10 and Jan, Nil and Leo did not appear in the list; or Basque Country, where Markel strongly succeeded Iker at the head of the preferences.
Likewise, in the autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla have disappeared from the "top" five since the beginning of the century names such as Alejandro, Daniel, Álvaro, Paula, María, Laura and Marina, and also others such as Bilal, Alí, Salma and Dunia, while barely remains, in the third place in Melilla, the queen of female names in Spain, which is Lucía.
