Nearly 22,000 Spaniards named after 'Game of Thrones' characters, but Mari Carmen and Antonio are most popular

The latest report by Spain's National Institute of Statistics (INE) has just revealed that 656,276 women, as at January 1, 2018, the most recent census date for when figures were available, were called Mari Carmen – or its variation 'Maricármen' – and 678,425 men were named Antonio.

But another generation or two could change that: new baby names in 2017, recorded on the annual census for last year, showed 4,410 Lucías and 4,209 Lucases.

After 'Maricármen' – which is in fact a contraction of 'María del Carmen' – the most common female name in Spain was 'María', followed by 'Carmen'.

The average age of a 'Carmen', without the 'Mari' before it, was 60.4 years as at January 1, 2018, whilst the average for Maricármen or Mari Carmen was 57.

In the case of María, the average age was 48-and-a-half, only slightly older than the average age of a Spanish adult – 43 – showing that the likely age range for the name could well start in earliest childhood and continue into the very elderly.

After 'Antonio', whose average age on the census date taken was just under 56, the most common name was 'José', aged typically just over 61, and Manuel, just under 55.

The latter two account for 594,144 and 590,965 Spanish men or boys respectively, and were followed by Francisco, at just below half a million; David, at slightly over 365,000; Juan, at around 347,000; José Antonio, at 310,000; Javier, at 306,500; Daniel, just short of 297,300 and, concluding the top 10, José Luis at 294,000.

After Spain's 606,000 Marías and 392,000 Carmens come 277,000 women and girls named Josefa – which is often shortened to 'Pepa' or 'Pepita' – 273,319 called Ana María, 267,000 named Isabel,

263,141 called María Pilar or María del Pilar (frequently contracted to just 'Pilar'), 259,216 with the name María Dolores or María de los Dolores (regularly reduced to 'Lola' or 'Marilola'), 256,381 girls and women known as Laura, and 251,492 called María Teresa, many of whom go by the names of 'Teresa', 'Tere', 'Maite' or, pronounced the same but with a different spelling, 'Mayte'.

Spaniards have two surnames – typically that of the father followed by that of the mother, although they can now legally invert these – and women do not change their surname to that of their husband when they marry.

García is the most common as a first or second surname, with nearly 1.47 million in the 'family' nationally, followed by Rodríguez and González, both at exactly 925,137.

'Fernández' is one of the surnames of 914,028 Spanish people, followed by 'López' (869,461), Martínez (832,270), Sánchez (816,476), Pérez (777,361), Gómez (491,138) and Martín (487,881).

As for new babies, the name 'Lucas' has knocked 'Hugo' off the top spot for the first time since 2013, but 'Lucía' has been in the lead since 2002.

After 'Lucas' and the 4,141 babies as at January 1 last year named 'Hugo', the third-most common boy's name for a newborn was 'Martín', at 3,838.

Lucía is only slightly ahead of 'Sofía', at 4,206, and 'María' shows no signs of going out of fashion, being the chosen name for 3,874 baby girls born in 2017.

Curiously, nearly 22,000 Spaniards have names that are the same as characters in the cult fantasy series Game of Thrones.

Kit Harrington's character Jon had a popular name in Spain anyway, especially in the Basque Country, and its 20,574 bearers' average age is 24 years and four months, but for girls, the parents of the 457 called 'Arya' were clearly fans of the show, given that their average age is two, slightly younger than the 86 Spanish girls called 'Daenerys', who are typically aged two years and four months.

Parents of the 180 boys called Sándor, the 69 called Bran and the 59 called Gregor are unlikely to all have taken their sons' names from Game of Thrones, even though these are three of the main characters, given that their average ages are 42.2 years, 12-and-three-quarters, and 34-and-a-half, respectively.