The name statistics are clear: This is what the corona babies were called.
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The case is updated – see the list at the bottom of the case
3,000 more children were born in Norway last year than usual. They are often called corona babies. But of course they also have names. So what did Norwegians prefer to call their children last year?
On Wednesday morning, Statistics Norway released the recent list of names for 2021. They say that the pandemic has not affected the name choices.
Noah all the way to the top
402 newborn boys were named Noah or Noah in 2021. This is the first time the name is at the top of the list.
– Noah is relatively new, at least as a fashion name. The first year that ten boys were named Noah in Norway was as late as 1997, says senior adviser Anders Sønstebø at Statistics Norway in a press release.
409 newborn girls were named Nora last year. Nora was the top name on the girls list already in 2012, and has since been in 1st or 2nd place every year with Emma.
Also in 2021, Emma came in 2nd place, closely followed by Sofie in 3rd place.
– Nora is the second most used name in Norway after the turn of the millennium, after Emma, says Anders Sønstebø.
The most popular girl names in 2021:
- Norah/Norah
- Emma
- Sofia/Sophie
- Olivia
- Her
- Sophia/Sofia
- Maya/Maja/Maia
- Leah/Lea
- Frida
- Ingrid
Source: Statistics Norway
The most popular boy names in 2021:
- Noah/Noah
- Oscar
- Oliver
- Lukas/Lucas
- Isaac/Isac/Isaac
- Aksel / Axel
- Emil
- Phillip/Philip/Fillip/Filip
- Jakob / Jacob
- William
Source: Statistics Norway
Some newcomers on the boys list
Isak and Aksel are newcomers to the boys’ top 10 list. They pushed Liam and Henrik out of the 2020 top list.
While names like Isak, Oskar, Aksel and Gustav are so-called climbers and have made big leaps on the list, according to Statistics Norway. Ludvig, Falk and Harald are other names that have become more used in 2021.
– Very surprised by the changes on the boys’ side
Ivar Utne is a name researcher at the University of Bergen and has studied this year’s name lists.
He is particularly surprised that Noah has jumped from third to first place.
– Noah has little or no tradition in Norway. But it has been popular since the 2000s. Now people have started to become very familiar with that name. Noah has a lot of vocals in him, and is a sonorous and musical name, says Utne.
On the boys’ side, there are many biblical names, such as Noah, Isaac, Philip, Luke and Jacob.
– I do not think it has much to do with religion, but they feel rich in tradition.
Isak has jumped up to 5th place. Here Utne sees a clear trend towards the use of hard consonants such as P, T and K.
– It is especially used for boys. This applies to Isaac, Jacob and Phillip who have these consonants. Oskar, Lukas and Aksel have the same thing, says Utne.
– A shift towards more Nordic names
On the girls’ side, Utne pays special attention to the names, the names have been within ten in the top, these are names that have moved in the areas before.
– This is the first time we see old Nordic names of the top ten, Ingrid and Frida. I have seen such a trend for a few years now. Frida is the first time we look at the top list, says Utne.
Tiril and Astrid are a bit of the same kind, they are in 16th and 18th place. So he simply sees that Norwegian names are increasing in popularity.
– I have seen a slight trend towards this in the last five years, that Norwegian and Nordic names are about to outgrow the English, says the name researcher.
Loud consonants such as M, N and L, it is typical of the girl names in recent years. Two vowels next to each other have also been very popular for several years.
– We also see that names like Elly, Mie and Mille are at full speed up. And otherwise from the top list, it is Ella, Maja, Emma and Lea who have this sound in them, he says.
–Tops the list in several counties
Nora is at the top in four counties: Viken, Innlandet, Vestland and Trøndelag. Emma is at the top in Agder and Troms and Finnmark.
Tiril and Hedda have climbed to the top in Møre og Romsdal and Nordland. Sofia is at the top in Oslo, ahead of Hedda and Ingrid.
–Although Noah tops the list nationally, it is only in Rogaland and Vestland county that the name is in 1st place.
Emil tops the list in Møre og Romsdal, Nordland, Innlandet and Agder. In Oslo and Viken, Oskar has climbed to the top.
In Oslo, Muhammad (with different spellings) has been at the top of the list for many years. Now it has dropped to 2nd place.
– The usual Muslim names have returned to the lists. This may mean that they choose either rarer Muslim names or names that do not have a Muslim tradition, says Utne.
Below you can search the top 50 names 2021:
A-endings are popular
In recent decades, short names ending in A have dominated the girls’ names, according to Statistics Norway. This is still the case. Over half of newborn girls get a name ending in A. Around 1950, it was not common. Then only ten percent of the newborn girls got names that ended with A. At that time it was Anne, Inger, Kari etc. who dominated.
Names go in waves
How we choose names has several theories. One of them is the 120-year theory, according to Statistics Norway.
That is, the names go in waves of 100-120 years. Many of the names on today’s top list were popular names in Norway at the beginning of the 20th century.
Another theory about how we choose is the so-called “aunt theory”. Young parents would rather name their children after great-grandparents they did not know, than after the old aunt they met in family parties. Maybe that’s why we see so many biblical names on the boys’ list in particular.
Greater spread in name choices
Anne is the most common name for women in Norway today, while Jan is the most common for men. But Statistics Norway states that there is a much greater spread in the name choices now than in the past. The top ten list makes up only 12-13 percent of all the names given last year. This means that very many other names are given as well.
But one thing is certain: Fewer double names are given, but more children get more surnames, according to Statistics Norway.
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