A HOLLYWOOD legend joining folk-dancers from Asturias and showing off her fancy footwork in the street is not a scene your average Oviedo resident witnesses during his or her weekly shop. Even though their northern...
Names in Spain explained: Trendiest, oldest, youngest...and where you fit in
21/05/2021
ALTHOUGH the most popular girls' and boys' names for new babies have been 'Lucía' and 'Hugo' for some years now, they are far from being the most commonly-found in Spain – recent research has unearthed a much more traditional pattern.
Overwhelmingly, the most likely name for a man is Antonio, or for a woman, María Carmen or one of its variations – María del Carmen or Mari Carmen.
Spain's National Institute of Statistics (INE), drawing on information from the padrón or town hall headcount census, revealed the most frequently-found names in each province among adults and children, male and female.
A total of 647,877 females were named María Carmen, and 655,030 male were called Antonio.
These were the most popular names nationwide, and 3% of the country's population is named one or the other – roughly 1.4% of the headcount are called Antonio and another, approximately 1.37% are called María Carmen, which translates to approximately one in every 73 women being the latter and one in 72 men being the former.
María del Carmen, or María Carmen, is the most widespread name – the most frequent in 32 provinces – although the Antonios of Spain are more concentrated, being the commonest name in 15 provinces.
Where to find María del Carmens and Antonios
If you are Spanish, female and were born in the provinces of Sevilla, Jaén, Córdoba, Granada, Cádiz, Valencia, Madrid, or the regions of Asturias, Cantabria, Castilla-La Mancha, Galicia, Castilla y León, the Basque Country, La Rioja, Navarra, the Canary Islands, or the north African enclave of Ceuta, you have a three-in-100 chance of being called María del Carmen.
If you were born in the region of Aragón and you are a Spanish female, you are more likely to be called María del Pilar than anything else; if you are from Melilla and are a woman, you have a strong probability of being called Fatima, and anywhere else in Spain, you have a high chance of being called María.
Men are more likely to be named 'Antonio' than anything else in the Extremadura province of Cáceres, the Castilla-La Mancha provinces of Ciudad Real and Albacete, the Aragón province of Huesca, the Andalucía provinces of Málaga, Granada, Almería, Jaén, and Córdoba, the Region of Murcia, the east-coast province of Alicante, the Balearic Islands, the Canary Island province of Las Palmas (Gran Canaria, La Graciosa, Fuerteventura and Lanzarote), the Catalunya province of Barcelona, or Madrid.
Other men's names most often found, and where
The second-most common men's name in Spain is Manuel, found in all four provinces of Galicia, in Cantabria, in the southern Aragón province of Teruel, in the Canary Island province of Santa Cruz (Tenerife, La Palma, La Gomera and El Hierro), the Andalucía provinces of Cádiz, Huelva and Sevilla, the Extremadura province of Badajoz, and the Castilla y León provinces of León, Zamora and Salamanca.
A total of 573,480 males in Spain are called Manuel.
In terms of numbers, the third-most popular men's name is José (564,478), followed by Francisco (479,405) David (368,520), Juan (333,527), Javier (308,131), José Antonio (306,188), Daniel (301,362), José Luis (288,637), Francisco Javier (286,726), Carlos (277,926), Jesús (272,210), Alejandro (263,990), Miguel (243,342), José Manuel (240,756), Rafael (231,407), Miguel Ángel (228,232), Pablo (221,329), and Pedro (218,581).
But this does not mean Spain's president Pedro Sánchez's name, or that of his former deputy president, Pablo Iglesias, are the least and second-least popular names in Spain – they are 19th- and 20th-most popular of all, whilst Spain's biggest male export in Hollywood, Antonio Banderas, actually has the eighth-most popular men's name in the country, rather than the number-one most-frequent: His birth name is José Antonio Domínguez Bandera.
In terms of distribution, though, José is the most-commonly found men's name in the provinces of Valencia, Castellón and Tarragona, although José Manuel is the most frequent in the region of Asturias; men are most likely to be called Jesús in Ávila, Valladolid, Palencia, Soria, Segovia, Toledo, Cuenca and Zaragoza, and most likely to be named David in Guadalajara, La Rioja and Burgos.
Regions with a co-official language often use the same, most popular names, but in the vernacular – in those areas which speak one of the catalán family of languages, for example, the top names elsewhere in the country may be the regional variations such as Antoni, Josep, Francesc, Joan, Lluís, Xavier, Carles, Miquel, and Pau instead of Pablo.
To this end, the most common men's name in the Catalunya provinces of Lleida and Girona is Jordi, which in Castilian Spanish would be Jorge ('George' in English), and in the Basque Country, the most popular name in the province of Vizcaya, of which the capital is Bilbao, is Jon; in that of Guipúzcoa, where the capital is San Sebastián, it is Mikel.
Javier is most-frequently found among men in the Basque province of Álava, the capital of which is Vitoria, and Francisco Javier is the most common in Navarra.
Although Ceuta, directly due south of Gibraltar on the northernmost tip of the African continent, and Melilla, immediately south of the province of Almería and 1,000 kilometres west of the Algerian border, are fully paid-up enclaves of Spain – both are small cities – their geographical proximity to Morocco, meaning residents often 'pop into' their neighbouring country just to go shopping, means the most-commonly found men's name is Mohamed, with one 'm'.
Women's 'compound names' and diminutives explained: Lola, Maite, Dora, Marisol...
Women's names vary less, in terms of number and spread, and the prefix or, occasionally, suffix of María – after the Virgin Mary – is fairly prolific.
In fact, a high number of women have two first names, one of which is María, and are typically known by a diminutive of both these together: María Teresa could be Maite, Mayte or Tere, for example; María de los Dolores could be Lola, Lolí, Mari Lola, Mariló, or simply Dolores; María Vicenta or María Victoria might be Mavi, or they may merely go by the second name of Vicenta, Vicén, Victoria, or Vicky; María Salvadora could be Dora; María de la Soledad is often Marisol or Sol, María de la Asunción may be Asún or Suni; and María Isabel is frequently Marisa or Maribel.
Other diminutive compounds without a 'María' in them include Inmaculada Concepción ('Immaculate Conception') or, the other way around, Concepción Inmaculada, who are more likely to be known as 'Inma' and 'Concha' respectively.
Examples of compound names and their diminutives among Spain's most high-profile figureheads are Malú – former The Voice coach, singer and now girlfriend of ex-Ciudadanos political party leader Albert Rivera – who was named María Lucía originally; TV presenter Mariló Montero ('María Dolores Leonor'); actress Maribel Verdú; presenter and actress Terelu Campos ('Teresa Lourdes'); 'Almodóvar Girl' Marisa Paredes, and tennis ace Rafael Nadal's sister Maribel Nadal Parera, who introduced her brother to her best friend at school, Mery (María Francisca) Perelló when they were all teenagers, sparking a romance that culminated in wedding bells 18 months ago.
But not every woman has a 'María' in her name – the most common, after María (del) Carmen, María, Carmen and Ana María is Josefa, which is often shortened to Pepa; after María del Pilar (typically shortened to Pilar or Pili) are Isabel and then Laura; after María de los Dolores and María Teresa are Ana, Cristina and Marta; after María de los Ángeles, which sometimes becomes Ángeles or Ángela, are Lucía and Francisca, the latter of which regularly morphs into 'Paca', 'Paquita', 'Fani', or in the east-coast areas, 'Xisca'; María Isabel and María José are followed by Antonia, and then Dolores.
And one look at Spain's government and its celebrities reveals there are plenty of non-María names out there which are very common: Irene (Montero), Nadia (Calviño), Carolina (Darías), Reyes (Maroto), Margarita (Robles), the ministers of equality, economy, health, industry and tourism, and defence, respectively; as well as Penélope (Cruz), Sara (Carbonero), Rosalía, and Arancha or, in the catalán family of languages or the Basque tongue euskera, 'Arantxa' (as in, Sánchez-Vicario, Wimbledon winner).
In any case – why is 'Josefa' so often shortened to 'Pepa', and 'José' to 'Pepe' or, in the north-western Mediterranean, 'Josep' to 'Pep'?
The answer comes from the Nativity story, explains María de la Encarnación, who has always gone by the name of 'Encarni' or 'Encarna', and who is married to a 'José'.
“It's a repetition of the letter 'P', in the case of José – P.P., which stands for padre putativo, or 'illegitimate father',” she says.
“This is because, although Joseph was Christ's 'father figure', Jesus was actually the son of God rather than of Joseph.
“So 'Josefa' being 'Pepa' is the feminine version of 'P.P.', or 'Pepe', just as 'Josefa' is the female variation of 'José', or 'Joseph'.”
Can you tell someone's age by their name?
The proliferation of names with biblical roots can mean that in Spain, it is not as easy to tell someone's approximate age from what they are called, but an INE graph shows that names like José and Antonio have been gradually reducing in popularity over the last century – from 9% and 6.5% of men, respectively, having these names at the beginning of the 1930s, fewer than 1% did so by the end of the decade of the 2010s.
Yet some names have all but disappeared from birth certificates over time – mainly female ones, although the 'oldest' men's name in Spain is Acindino, held by just 23 residents of an average age of 81, followed by Frumencio; only 37 Frumencios remain in Spain, and their mean average age is 78.4.
As for women, the 'oldest' name is Afrodisia, and the average age of the 28 ladies in Spain named after the Greek goddess is just under 85.
Other names of women with an average age of over 80, in descending order, include Acracia, Fraternidad, Parmenia, Exiquia, Segismunda, Domina, Crescenciana, Irundina, Eutiquia, Sandalia, Teodula, Eustasia, Lupicinia and Dativa.
Greek and Roman goddess names, or adaptations of these, were once very much en vogue, with the average age of a woman named Hermogenes being 79-and-a-half, and Pantaleona, 78.8.
The most frequently-found 'old' name, among women, is Ciriaca, with 325 of these on the census and of an average age, as at the end of 2020, of 79 years and four-and-a-half months.
'Modern' names: What new babies are most likely to be called, by region
Trends in baby names have been changing since the dawn of the 21st century; for some years, now, the most popular have been Lucía and Hugo, although Martín, Daniel, Alejandro and Marc and, in a couple of provinces, Pablo are the most regular boys' names – in the Basque Country, these are Markel, Aimar and Jon; in western Galicia, Mateo is most popular for boys; Iker, as in former Spain goalkeeper Iker Casillas, in Navarra (even though Casillas was born in Ávila, Castilla y León); Adrián is in the province of Burgos; and Diego in Teruel, quite possibly in tribute to the male half of the legend of the 'Lovers of Teruel', the Aragón answer to Romeo and Juliet.
For girls, Lucía dominates, but Daniela is the most popular for baby girls in the Canary Islands, although in Andalucía, Murcia and southern Extremadura, María continues to be first choice for little girls born; in the Basque Country, baby girls are most likely to be named Ane, in Galicia, Noa and Sara, in the Balearic Islands, Paula, in the province of Salamanca, Vega, and in Catalunya, Julia, other than in Barcelona, where Martina is the first choice.
Characters from TV fiction, or celebrities, are often picked by new parents – 329 girls in Spain are called Khloe, possibly after the Kardashian family, and their average age is two years and four months; 942 girls with an average age of two years and eight months are named Arya, as in 'Stark', and 169 called Daenerys, typically aged two years, nine-and-a-half months, both characters from Game of Thrones; whilst another of the most popular 'youngest' names is Cataleya, on 430 girls' birth certificates, and who are an average age of two years and four months, and Sarayma, with 469, who are typically aged two years and seven months.
The 'youngest' names in Spain at the moment are Nyan and Aurah, who were born, on average, around mid-February to March 2020, and other names with an average age of under two as at the end of last year are Anuel, Liam Mateo and Vaiana.
In ascending order, completing the list of the 'youngest' names, whose average ages as at December 31, 2020 was three or under, is made up of Halley, Liam Gaël, Dominic Andrei, Lexa, Thiago Gaël, Gurfateh, Rital, Kataleya, Isco, Anabia, Cattaleya, Anays María, Darell, Dylan Gaël, Koa, Ian Gaël, Rohaan, Sarayma, Joury, Edric, Cattleya, Lojain, Loujain, Shams, Jouri, Kaily, Ratil, Hoorain, Retaj, Arizona, and Inaaya – the latter three of whom were born, on average, at the end of 2017.
Spanish surnames: Most popular, and why everyone has two
As for surnames, the most frequent in Spain has been, for decades now, García, and is followed by other 'usual suspects' González, López, Sánchez, Gómez, Jiménez and Ruiz.
Spanish people, and people from Spanish-speaking countries, normally have two surnames – their father's, followed by their mother's – although a movement to switch these around has started in recent years; mostly, they will be referred to purely by their first surname, except in an official setting.
One 'trick' used by families to make their surnames less 'run of the mill' is where the two last names of one parent are hyphenated – such as former minister Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón, or the late Alfredo Pérez-Rubalcaba, Madrid's current mayor José Luis Martínez-Almeida and ex-president of Spain José Luis Rodríguez-Zapatero - so that they could be known, when referring to them by surname only, as 'Gallardón', 'Rubalcaba', 'Almeida', and 'Zapatero', as they are more unique than Ruiz, Pérez, Martínez and Rodríguez, meaning less likelihood of confusion when speaking of them in the news or in official environments.
Other popular surnames, in descending order, are Moreno, Álvarez, Gutiérrez, Navarro, Domínguez – as in the nationwide fashion designer Adolfo Domínguez – Ramos (as in footballer Sergio), Gil, Molina, Morales, Ortega (as in Amancio Ortega, founder of Inditex, which owns the Zara chain), Delgado, Marín (such as Carolina, arguably Spain's best female badminton player in history), Núñez, Medina, Castillo, and Santos.
Women do not change their surname to their husband's when they marry in Spain, meaning that the issue of 'what to do about our names' never came up when same-sex marriage was legalised in 2005.
Few reports have been heard of Spaniards having problems registering names of their children born when they live abroad in line with the Spanish-language tradition, or of women having administrative difficulties in keeping their birth surnames after marrying men.
Curiously, expatriates living in countries which do not follow their native language's or language family's traditions of surnames do, sometimes, report legal headaches – Spain is aware of this occasionally being the case with its own registries and is working on changing it.
Examples typically include patronymic naming traditions – still in Iceland and, centuries ago, in the whole of Scandinavia, a father's first name followed by -sson or -sdóttir, for 'son of' or 'daughter of', would become a child's surname, meaning babies born do not have the same last names as either parent or their opposite-sex siblings; in Russia and other eastern-Slavic countries and regions, the last name is the family surname, but is preceded by a first surname based upon the father's first name and 'of', in the masculine or the feminine; if the father is called Ivan or Vladimir, his son's first surname will be Ivanovich or Vladimirovich and his daughter's will be Ivanovna or Vladimirovna.
Likewise, surnames in some eastern and north-eastern European countries are adapted to 'agree' with the gender of the person – Zivert or Ziverte, or Gluckowski and Gluckowska, for a boy or a girl, in Latvia and Poland respectively.
Some new parents with these naming traditions and who live abroad, including in Spain, say they have had difficulties registering their babies with the 'correct' surnames, meaning their children could have problems when visiting or, later in life, living in their family's native country due to having, for example, a male surname for a girl or a female surname for a boy.
Spain does not have a tradition of middle names, either: Expatriates from Anglo-Saxon countries may have been surprised when, on being called from a doctor's or hospital waiting room, their middle name was given, or that they are sometimes even addressed directly by their middle name.
Whilst in many cultural or language naming traditions, the second 'given' name is often a big secret, sometimes a deliberately well-hidden one or, at least, a feature others rarely bother to enquire about and regularly do not even know the 'middle' names of their closest friends, all 'given' names listed on a person's ID documents or official records are, in Spain, taken to be their full title and the one used as standard.
If you're not Spanish, how many people share your name in Spain, and how old are they?
The INE has created a page where anyone living in Spain can find out how many people share their name, and the average age of those people – middle name included.
For foreign residents, this is a fascinating exercise, but where there are fewer than 20 of you, your name will not be listed.
Aaliyah, an Arab name and one shared by the US-born R&B singer who died in a plane crash in 2001 aged 22, is held by 60 people in Spain, but is unlikely to be in tribute to the late star, as the average age is eight-and-a-half.
In Spain, 153 people are called Scott, and at the end of last year, were an average age of 36-and-a-half; without even counting those who have a middle name, a total of 2,967 females in Spain are called Brenda, and typically aged 26 and seven months.
If you're called Claire, you're among 458 others and, collectively, you're aged just over 34, although if your first name is Claire and your middle name is Elizabeth, Louise or Marie, the total rises to 769 and your average age will range from 34 to 42 years and two-and-a-half months.
Depending upon your middle name, if your first name is Barry, you share it with 532 other men, and your average age is from 61 years and four months to 70.
You're also in good company if your name is Colin, unless your middle name is more rare; a total of 659 Colins live in Spain, and their average age range is from 61 years and five months to 70 years and five months, or was at the end of last year.
Keiths are also fairly prolific – still only about 0.1% of the 'Antonio' total, though, at around 670, and ranging in age from 62 to just over 70 as at New Year's Eve.
And women called 'Samantha' vary dramatically in age depending upon their middle or second name, the range of which shows this is more international than may appear at first glance: Samantha Jane is the most common, with 130 of these and aged on average 43-and-three-quarters, but add a 'y' into the middle name and Samantha Jayne is typically 41years and five months, and only accounts for 36 women in Spain; Samantha Louise is also among the oldest of her name-group in Spain, with 66 of them being a typical 38-and-a-half, compared with Samantha Elizabeth, who is 25; Samantha Nicole, who is 16; Samantha Victoria, aged 14, and the youngest pair of all, Samantha Valentina and Samantha Sofía, who are eight-and-three-quarters and seven, respectively.
The huge and very international selection of given names, and the combinations of different language-origin names where a person has two, are a clear sign that Spain is highly multi-cultural: One's name is not necessarily a clue as to the country they or their families are from, but if native Spaniards are called, for example, Colin, Keith, Brenda or Aaliyah, it shows an open, 'global' attitude on the part of the parents who named them.
And it can be comforting for foreign residents in Spain to find out that their name is not 'strange-sounding' to the general public, and that they are more 'mainstream' and less 'different' or 'other' than they may have felt when they first emigrated.
Related Topics
ALTHOUGH the most popular girls' and boys' names for new babies have been 'Lucía' and 'Hugo' for some years now, they are far from being the most commonly-found in Spain – recent research has unearthed a much more traditional pattern.
Overwhelmingly, the most likely name for a man is Antonio, or for a woman, María Carmen or one of its variations – María del Carmen or Mari Carmen.
Spain's National Institute of Statistics (INE), drawing on information from the padrón or town hall headcount census, revealed the most frequently-found names in each province among adults and children, male and female.
A total of 647,877 females were named María Carmen, and 655,030 male were called Antonio.
These were the most popular names nationwide, and 3% of the country's population is named one or the other – roughly 1.4% of the headcount are called Antonio and another, approximately 1.37% are called María Carmen, which translates to approximately one in every 73 women being the latter and one in 72 men being the former.
María del Carmen, or María Carmen, is the most widespread name – the most frequent in 32 provinces – although the Antonios of Spain are more concentrated, being the commonest name in 15 provinces.
Where to find María del Carmens and Antonios
If you are Spanish, female and were born in the provinces of Sevilla, Jaén, Córdoba, Granada, Cádiz, Valencia, Madrid, or the regions of Asturias, Cantabria, Castilla-La Mancha, Galicia, Castilla y León, the Basque Country, La Rioja, Navarra, the Canary Islands, or the north African enclave of Ceuta, you have a three-in-100 chance of being called María del Carmen.
If you were born in the region of Aragón and you are a Spanish female, you are more likely to be called María del Pilar than anything else; if you are from Melilla and are a woman, you have a strong probability of being called Fatima, and anywhere else in Spain, you have a high chance of being called María.
Men are more likely to be named 'Antonio' than anything else in the Extremadura province of Cáceres, the Castilla-La Mancha provinces of Ciudad Real and Albacete, the Aragón province of Huesca, the Andalucía provinces of Málaga, Granada, Almería, Jaén, and Córdoba, the Region of Murcia, the east-coast province of Alicante, the Balearic Islands, the Canary Island province of Las Palmas (Gran Canaria, La Graciosa, Fuerteventura and Lanzarote), the Catalunya province of Barcelona, or Madrid.
Other men's names most often found, and where
The second-most common men's name in Spain is Manuel, found in all four provinces of Galicia, in Cantabria, in the southern Aragón province of Teruel, in the Canary Island province of Santa Cruz (Tenerife, La Palma, La Gomera and El Hierro), the Andalucía provinces of Cádiz, Huelva and Sevilla, the Extremadura province of Badajoz, and the Castilla y León provinces of León, Zamora and Salamanca.
A total of 573,480 males in Spain are called Manuel.
In terms of numbers, the third-most popular men's name is José (564,478), followed by Francisco (479,405) David (368,520), Juan (333,527), Javier (308,131), José Antonio (306,188), Daniel (301,362), José Luis (288,637), Francisco Javier (286,726), Carlos (277,926), Jesús (272,210), Alejandro (263,990), Miguel (243,342), José Manuel (240,756), Rafael (231,407), Miguel Ángel (228,232), Pablo (221,329), and Pedro (218,581).
But this does not mean Spain's president Pedro Sánchez's name, or that of his former deputy president, Pablo Iglesias, are the least and second-least popular names in Spain – they are 19th- and 20th-most popular of all, whilst Spain's biggest male export in Hollywood, Antonio Banderas, actually has the eighth-most popular men's name in the country, rather than the number-one most-frequent: His birth name is José Antonio Domínguez Bandera.
In terms of distribution, though, José is the most-commonly found men's name in the provinces of Valencia, Castellón and Tarragona, although José Manuel is the most frequent in the region of Asturias; men are most likely to be called Jesús in Ávila, Valladolid, Palencia, Soria, Segovia, Toledo, Cuenca and Zaragoza, and most likely to be named David in Guadalajara, La Rioja and Burgos.
Regions with a co-official language often use the same, most popular names, but in the vernacular – in those areas which speak one of the catalán family of languages, for example, the top names elsewhere in the country may be the regional variations such as Antoni, Josep, Francesc, Joan, Lluís, Xavier, Carles, Miquel, and Pau instead of Pablo.
To this end, the most common men's name in the Catalunya provinces of Lleida and Girona is Jordi, which in Castilian Spanish would be Jorge ('George' in English), and in the Basque Country, the most popular name in the province of Vizcaya, of which the capital is Bilbao, is Jon; in that of Guipúzcoa, where the capital is San Sebastián, it is Mikel.
Javier is most-frequently found among men in the Basque province of Álava, the capital of which is Vitoria, and Francisco Javier is the most common in Navarra.
Although Ceuta, directly due south of Gibraltar on the northernmost tip of the African continent, and Melilla, immediately south of the province of Almería and 1,000 kilometres west of the Algerian border, are fully paid-up enclaves of Spain – both are small cities – their geographical proximity to Morocco, meaning residents often 'pop into' their neighbouring country just to go shopping, means the most-commonly found men's name is Mohamed, with one 'm'.
Women's 'compound names' and diminutives explained: Lola, Maite, Dora, Marisol...
Women's names vary less, in terms of number and spread, and the prefix or, occasionally, suffix of María – after the Virgin Mary – is fairly prolific.
In fact, a high number of women have two first names, one of which is María, and are typically known by a diminutive of both these together: María Teresa could be Maite, Mayte or Tere, for example; María de los Dolores could be Lola, Lolí, Mari Lola, Mariló, or simply Dolores; María Vicenta or María Victoria might be Mavi, or they may merely go by the second name of Vicenta, Vicén, Victoria, or Vicky; María Salvadora could be Dora; María de la Soledad is often Marisol or Sol, María de la Asunción may be Asún or Suni; and María Isabel is frequently Marisa or Maribel.
Other diminutive compounds without a 'María' in them include Inmaculada Concepción ('Immaculate Conception') or, the other way around, Concepción Inmaculada, who are more likely to be known as 'Inma' and 'Concha' respectively.
Examples of compound names and their diminutives among Spain's most high-profile figureheads are Malú – former The Voice coach, singer and now girlfriend of ex-Ciudadanos political party leader Albert Rivera – who was named María Lucía originally; TV presenter Mariló Montero ('María Dolores Leonor'); actress Maribel Verdú; presenter and actress Terelu Campos ('Teresa Lourdes'); 'Almodóvar Girl' Marisa Paredes, and tennis ace Rafael Nadal's sister Maribel Nadal Parera, who introduced her brother to her best friend at school, Mery (María Francisca) Perelló when they were all teenagers, sparking a romance that culminated in wedding bells 18 months ago.
But not every woman has a 'María' in her name – the most common, after María (del) Carmen, María, Carmen and Ana María is Josefa, which is often shortened to Pepa; after María del Pilar (typically shortened to Pilar or Pili) are Isabel and then Laura; after María de los Dolores and María Teresa are Ana, Cristina and Marta; after María de los Ángeles, which sometimes becomes Ángeles or Ángela, are Lucía and Francisca, the latter of which regularly morphs into 'Paca', 'Paquita', 'Fani', or in the east-coast areas, 'Xisca'; María Isabel and María José are followed by Antonia, and then Dolores.
And one look at Spain's government and its celebrities reveals there are plenty of non-María names out there which are very common: Irene (Montero), Nadia (Calviño), Carolina (Darías), Reyes (Maroto), Margarita (Robles), the ministers of equality, economy, health, industry and tourism, and defence, respectively; as well as Penélope (Cruz), Sara (Carbonero), Rosalía, and Arancha or, in the catalán family of languages or the Basque tongue euskera, 'Arantxa' (as in, Sánchez-Vicario, Wimbledon winner).
In any case – why is 'Josefa' so often shortened to 'Pepa', and 'José' to 'Pepe' or, in the north-western Mediterranean, 'Josep' to 'Pep'?
The answer comes from the Nativity story, explains María de la Encarnación, who has always gone by the name of 'Encarni' or 'Encarna', and who is married to a 'José'.
“It's a repetition of the letter 'P', in the case of José – P.P., which stands for padre putativo, or 'illegitimate father',” she says.
“This is because, although Joseph was Christ's 'father figure', Jesus was actually the son of God rather than of Joseph.
“So 'Josefa' being 'Pepa' is the feminine version of 'P.P.', or 'Pepe', just as 'Josefa' is the female variation of 'José', or 'Joseph'.”
Can you tell someone's age by their name?
The proliferation of names with biblical roots can mean that in Spain, it is not as easy to tell someone's approximate age from what they are called, but an INE graph shows that names like José and Antonio have been gradually reducing in popularity over the last century – from 9% and 6.5% of men, respectively, having these names at the beginning of the 1930s, fewer than 1% did so by the end of the decade of the 2010s.
Yet some names have all but disappeared from birth certificates over time – mainly female ones, although the 'oldest' men's name in Spain is Acindino, held by just 23 residents of an average age of 81, followed by Frumencio; only 37 Frumencios remain in Spain, and their mean average age is 78.4.
As for women, the 'oldest' name is Afrodisia, and the average age of the 28 ladies in Spain named after the Greek goddess is just under 85.
Other names of women with an average age of over 80, in descending order, include Acracia, Fraternidad, Parmenia, Exiquia, Segismunda, Domina, Crescenciana, Irundina, Eutiquia, Sandalia, Teodula, Eustasia, Lupicinia and Dativa.
Greek and Roman goddess names, or adaptations of these, were once very much en vogue, with the average age of a woman named Hermogenes being 79-and-a-half, and Pantaleona, 78.8.
The most frequently-found 'old' name, among women, is Ciriaca, with 325 of these on the census and of an average age, as at the end of 2020, of 79 years and four-and-a-half months.
'Modern' names: What new babies are most likely to be called, by region
Trends in baby names have been changing since the dawn of the 21st century; for some years, now, the most popular have been Lucía and Hugo, although Martín, Daniel, Alejandro and Marc and, in a couple of provinces, Pablo are the most regular boys' names – in the Basque Country, these are Markel, Aimar and Jon; in western Galicia, Mateo is most popular for boys; Iker, as in former Spain goalkeeper Iker Casillas, in Navarra (even though Casillas was born in Ávila, Castilla y León); Adrián is in the province of Burgos; and Diego in Teruel, quite possibly in tribute to the male half of the legend of the 'Lovers of Teruel', the Aragón answer to Romeo and Juliet.
For girls, Lucía dominates, but Daniela is the most popular for baby girls in the Canary Islands, although in Andalucía, Murcia and southern Extremadura, María continues to be first choice for little girls born; in the Basque Country, baby girls are most likely to be named Ane, in Galicia, Noa and Sara, in the Balearic Islands, Paula, in the province of Salamanca, Vega, and in Catalunya, Julia, other than in Barcelona, where Martina is the first choice.
Characters from TV fiction, or celebrities, are often picked by new parents – 329 girls in Spain are called Khloe, possibly after the Kardashian family, and their average age is two years and four months; 942 girls with an average age of two years and eight months are named Arya, as in 'Stark', and 169 called Daenerys, typically aged two years, nine-and-a-half months, both characters from Game of Thrones; whilst another of the most popular 'youngest' names is Cataleya, on 430 girls' birth certificates, and who are an average age of two years and four months, and Sarayma, with 469, who are typically aged two years and seven months.
The 'youngest' names in Spain at the moment are Nyan and Aurah, who were born, on average, around mid-February to March 2020, and other names with an average age of under two as at the end of last year are Anuel, Liam Mateo and Vaiana.
In ascending order, completing the list of the 'youngest' names, whose average ages as at December 31, 2020 was three or under, is made up of Halley, Liam Gaël, Dominic Andrei, Lexa, Thiago Gaël, Gurfateh, Rital, Kataleya, Isco, Anabia, Cattaleya, Anays María, Darell, Dylan Gaël, Koa, Ian Gaël, Rohaan, Sarayma, Joury, Edric, Cattleya, Lojain, Loujain, Shams, Jouri, Kaily, Ratil, Hoorain, Retaj, Arizona, and Inaaya – the latter three of whom were born, on average, at the end of 2017.
Spanish surnames: Most popular, and why everyone has two
As for surnames, the most frequent in Spain has been, for decades now, García, and is followed by other 'usual suspects' González, López, Sánchez, Gómez, Jiménez and Ruiz.
Spanish people, and people from Spanish-speaking countries, normally have two surnames – their father's, followed by their mother's – although a movement to switch these around has started in recent years; mostly, they will be referred to purely by their first surname, except in an official setting.
One 'trick' used by families to make their surnames less 'run of the mill' is where the two last names of one parent are hyphenated – such as former minister Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón, or the late Alfredo Pérez-Rubalcaba, Madrid's current mayor José Luis Martínez-Almeida and ex-president of Spain José Luis Rodríguez-Zapatero - so that they could be known, when referring to them by surname only, as 'Gallardón', 'Rubalcaba', 'Almeida', and 'Zapatero', as they are more unique than Ruiz, Pérez, Martínez and Rodríguez, meaning less likelihood of confusion when speaking of them in the news or in official environments.
Other popular surnames, in descending order, are Moreno, Álvarez, Gutiérrez, Navarro, Domínguez – as in the nationwide fashion designer Adolfo Domínguez – Ramos (as in footballer Sergio), Gil, Molina, Morales, Ortega (as in Amancio Ortega, founder of Inditex, which owns the Zara chain), Delgado, Marín (such as Carolina, arguably Spain's best female badminton player in history), Núñez, Medina, Castillo, and Santos.
Women do not change their surname to their husband's when they marry in Spain, meaning that the issue of 'what to do about our names' never came up when same-sex marriage was legalised in 2005.
Few reports have been heard of Spaniards having problems registering names of their children born when they live abroad in line with the Spanish-language tradition, or of women having administrative difficulties in keeping their birth surnames after marrying men.
Curiously, expatriates living in countries which do not follow their native language's or language family's traditions of surnames do, sometimes, report legal headaches – Spain is aware of this occasionally being the case with its own registries and is working on changing it.
Examples typically include patronymic naming traditions – still in Iceland and, centuries ago, in the whole of Scandinavia, a father's first name followed by -sson or -sdóttir, for 'son of' or 'daughter of', would become a child's surname, meaning babies born do not have the same last names as either parent or their opposite-sex siblings; in Russia and other eastern-Slavic countries and regions, the last name is the family surname, but is preceded by a first surname based upon the father's first name and 'of', in the masculine or the feminine; if the father is called Ivan or Vladimir, his son's first surname will be Ivanovich or Vladimirovich and his daughter's will be Ivanovna or Vladimirovna.
Likewise, surnames in some eastern and north-eastern European countries are adapted to 'agree' with the gender of the person – Zivert or Ziverte, or Gluckowski and Gluckowska, for a boy or a girl, in Latvia and Poland respectively.
Some new parents with these naming traditions and who live abroad, including in Spain, say they have had difficulties registering their babies with the 'correct' surnames, meaning their children could have problems when visiting or, later in life, living in their family's native country due to having, for example, a male surname for a girl or a female surname for a boy.
Spain does not have a tradition of middle names, either: Expatriates from Anglo-Saxon countries may have been surprised when, on being called from a doctor's or hospital waiting room, their middle name was given, or that they are sometimes even addressed directly by their middle name.
Whilst in many cultural or language naming traditions, the second 'given' name is often a big secret, sometimes a deliberately well-hidden one or, at least, a feature others rarely bother to enquire about and regularly do not even know the 'middle' names of their closest friends, all 'given' names listed on a person's ID documents or official records are, in Spain, taken to be their full title and the one used as standard.
If you're not Spanish, how many people share your name in Spain, and how old are they?
The INE has created a page where anyone living in Spain can find out how many people share their name, and the average age of those people – middle name included.
For foreign residents, this is a fascinating exercise, but where there are fewer than 20 of you, your name will not be listed.
Aaliyah, an Arab name and one shared by the US-born R&B singer who died in a plane crash in 2001 aged 22, is held by 60 people in Spain, but is unlikely to be in tribute to the late star, as the average age is eight-and-a-half.
In Spain, 153 people are called Scott, and at the end of last year, were an average age of 36-and-a-half; without even counting those who have a middle name, a total of 2,967 females in Spain are called Brenda, and typically aged 26 and seven months.
If you're called Claire, you're among 458 others and, collectively, you're aged just over 34, although if your first name is Claire and your middle name is Elizabeth, Louise or Marie, the total rises to 769 and your average age will range from 34 to 42 years and two-and-a-half months.
Depending upon your middle name, if your first name is Barry, you share it with 532 other men, and your average age is from 61 years and four months to 70.
You're also in good company if your name is Colin, unless your middle name is more rare; a total of 659 Colins live in Spain, and their average age range is from 61 years and five months to 70 years and five months, or was at the end of last year.
Keiths are also fairly prolific – still only about 0.1% of the 'Antonio' total, though, at around 670, and ranging in age from 62 to just over 70 as at New Year's Eve.
And women called 'Samantha' vary dramatically in age depending upon their middle or second name, the range of which shows this is more international than may appear at first glance: Samantha Jane is the most common, with 130 of these and aged on average 43-and-three-quarters, but add a 'y' into the middle name and Samantha Jayne is typically 41years and five months, and only accounts for 36 women in Spain; Samantha Louise is also among the oldest of her name-group in Spain, with 66 of them being a typical 38-and-a-half, compared with Samantha Elizabeth, who is 25; Samantha Nicole, who is 16; Samantha Victoria, aged 14, and the youngest pair of all, Samantha Valentina and Samantha Sofía, who are eight-and-three-quarters and seven, respectively.
The huge and very international selection of given names, and the combinations of different language-origin names where a person has two, are a clear sign that Spain is highly multi-cultural: One's name is not necessarily a clue as to the country they or their families are from, but if native Spaniards are called, for example, Colin, Keith, Brenda or Aaliyah, it shows an open, 'global' attitude on the part of the parents who named them.
And it can be comforting for foreign residents in Spain to find out that their name is not 'strange-sounding' to the general public, and that they are more 'mainstream' and less 'different' or 'other' than they may have felt when they first emigrated.
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