Popular baby names in Sweden, 2012

Flag of Sweden
Flag of Sweden

The most popular baby names in Sweden were announced a couple of days ago.

According to Statistics Sweden, the country’s top names are William for boys and Alice for girls.

Here are the top 20 girl names and top 20 boy names of 2012:

Girl NamesBoy Names
1. Alice
2. Elsa
3. Julia
4. Ella
5. Maja
6. Ebba
7. Emma
8. Linnea
9. Molly
10. Alva
11. Wilma
12. Agnes
13. Klara [tie]
13. Nellie [tie]
15. Isabelle
16. Olivia
17. Alicia
18. Ellen
19. Lily
20. Stella
1. William
2. Oscar
3. Lucas
4. Hugo
5. Elias
6. Alexander
7. Liam
8. Charlie
9. Oliver
10. Filip
11. Leo
12. Viktor
13. Vincent
14. Emil
15. Axel
16. Anton
17. Erik
18. Olle
19. Theo
20. Ludvig

Did you know that, back in 1888, Ebba was the top newbie baby name in the U.S.?

But let’s get back to Sweden.

Which Swedish names saw the biggest popularity boosts from 2011 to 2012?

Going up:

Rising Girl NamesRising Boy Names
1. Sigrid
2. Majken
3. Elise
4. Alicia
5. Lykke
6. Ronja
7. Juni
8. Svea
9. Siri [tie]
9. Melissa [tie]
1. Ebbe
2. Henry
3. Elvin
4. Charlie
5. Julian
6. Valter [tie]
6. Matteo [tie]
8. Elton
9. Edward
10. Mohamed

And which names decreased the most in popularity?

Going down:

Falling Girl NamesFalling Boy Names
1. Minna
2. Tove
3. Elin
4. Evelina
5. Thea
6. Tindra
7. Filippa
8. Linnea
9. Tilde
10. Amanda
1. Ville
2. Linus
3. Neo
4. Rasmus
5. Carl
6. Jonathan
7. Simon
8. Viggo [tie]
8. Tim [tie]
10. Joel

Finally, here are the top baby names in Sweden from a couple of years ago.

Sources: Name Statistics – Statistics Sweden, William, Alice top Swedish baby names

Image: Adapted from Flag of Sweden (public domain)

12 thoughts on “Popular baby names in Sweden, 2012

  1. Love Axel and Linnea. I wonder why Emil isn’t more visible in the U.S., especially since Emily is so popular. (I had a friend growing up who was Emil but went by Skip, because he hated his name.)

  2. That’s a good question about Emil. Maybe, because people are so familiar with the name Emily, they think the “meel” ending of Emil sounds a bit off?

  3. @skizzo – Portugese name blog Nomes e mais Nomes has a list, but doesn’t cite a source. So far, I haven’t seen an official list on any Portuguese govt. website.

  4. Nancy, Skizzo is right. The IRN does not publish that information, but they were kind enough to send it to me as soon as I requested it.

  5. Thanks, Filipa!

    I wonder why Portugal doesn’t simply publish the list and make it public. Especially since they seem happy to share it with those who ask to see it. Have they ever given a reason?

  6. I have no idea! In recent years, the newspapers have published some related news – top 5, top 10 and even top 20 – but nobody seems to care. In my opinion, media could be more involved, particularly because we have to use only approved names and that’s weird! :D

  7. Having just perused an assortment of lists of top 20 names from North America, Oceania, and Europe, it amazes me just how similar these lists are, even those from countries where English is not the official language. Given the restrictions in naming ( from official lists of approved names) in countries such as France and Portugal, it would be interesting to see whether similar trends in naming occur in those countries – are the local ‘versions’ of many of these top 20 names replicated?

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