How popular is the baby name Alba in the United States right now? How popular was it historically? Find out using the graph below! Plus, see baby names similar to Alba and check out all the blog posts that mention the name Alba.

The graph will take a few seconds to load, thanks for your patience. (Don't worry, it shouldn't take nine months.) If it's taking too long, try reloading the page.


Popularity of the Baby Name Alba

Number of Babies Named Alba

Born in the U.S. Since 1880

Posts that Mention the Name Alba

Popular Baby Names in Denmark, 2015

According to data from Statistics Denmark, the most popular baby names in the country in 2015 were Sofia and William.

Here are Denmark’s top 10 girl names and top 10 boy names of 2015:

Girl Names Boy Names
1. Sofia, 555 baby girls
2. Freja, 459
3. Ella, 449
4. Alma, 445
5. Anna, 419
6. Emma, 415
7. Laura, 412
8. Clara, 398
9. Ida, 390
10. Isabella, 388 		1. William, 591 baby boys
2. Noah, 543
3. Lucas, 534
4. Emil, 489
5. Oliver, 489
6. Oscar, 480
7. Victor, 478
8. Malthe, 455
9. Alfred, 425
10. Carl, 418

Emma, the former #1 girl name, dropped to 6th place last year. Alma, on the other hand, jumped from 11th to 4th and replaced Karla in the top 10.

On the boys’ side, Alfred (jumping from 17th to 9th) and Carl replaced Frederik and Magnus.

In the top 50, the girl names Gry, Naya, and Silje replaced Alba, Naja, and Malou, and the boy names Jakob, Lauge, Milas, Silas, Theo, Thor, and Viggo replaced Andreas, Bertram, Daniel, Jacob, Jonas, Nikolaj, and Sander.

(Gry means “dawn” in Danish and Norwegian, Silje is a diminutive of Cecilia, and Lauge is based on the Old Norse byname Félagi, meaning “fellow, partner, mate.”)

Here are Denmark’s 2014 rankings.

Sources: Names of newborn children – Statistics Denmark, Top 20 Danish baby names for boys and girls, Lauge – Nordic Names Wiki


Popular Baby Names in Spain, 2015

According to data from Spain’s Instituto Nacional de Estadistica (INE), the most popular baby names in Spain in 2015 were Lucia and Hugo.

Here are Spain’s top 10 girl names and top 10 boy names of 2015:

Girl Names Boy Names
1. Lucia, 5,229 baby girls
2. Maria, 4,516
3. Martina, 4,447
4. Paula, 3,854
5. Sofia, 3,525
6. Daniela, 3,392
7. Alba, 3,082
8. Julia, 3,006
9. Carla, 2,951
10. Sara, 2,936 		1. Hugo, 5,162 baby boys
2. Daniel, 4,578
3. Pablo, 4,202
4. Martin, 4,078
5. Alejandro, 3,994
6. Adrian, 3,341
7. Alvaro, 3,244
8. David, 2,993
9. Lucas, 2,904
10. Mario, 2,825

Lucia has held the #1 spot since 2003, and Hugo since 2012.

In the girls’ top 10, Alba rises 3 spots, and Julia replaces Valeria (now 11th).

In the boys’ top 10, Martin rises 4 spots, and Lucas replaces Diego (now 11th).

In the top 100, Miguel and Jose rank 23rd and 38th, respectively, while the compound names Miguel Angel and Jose Antonio rank 86th and 94th, respectively.

Other interesting names in the top 100 include…

  • Laia, 34th for girls. It’s a short form of Eulalia in Catalan. Laia ranks 3rd for girls in Catalonia specifically.
  • Leire and Leyre, 39th and 50th for girls. They refer to the Monastery of San Salvador of Leyre in Navarre. Leyre ranks 10th in Navarre specifically.
  • Nerea, 46th for girls. It’s based on the Basque word nere, meaning “my” or “mine” — kind of like a Basque version of Mia.
  • Triana, 38th for girls. Perhaps inspired by the Triana neighborhood of Seville…?
  • Iria, 69th for girls. It might be a form of Irene, based on the Ancient Greek word for “peace.” The Marian apparitions of Fátima occurred at the Cova da Iria.
  • Biel, 71st for boys. It’s a short form of Gabriel in Catalan. Biel ranks 5th for boys in Catalonia specifically.
  • Ibai, 99th for boys. It’s the Basque word for “river.” It ranks 4th in both Navarre and the Basque Country.

Here are Spain’s 2014 rankings, if you’d like to compare.

Sources: Hugo and Lucia are top choice for Spanish infants, Instituto Nacional de Estadistica

Popular Baby Names in Denmark, 2014

According to data from Statistics Denmark, the most popular baby names in the country in 2014 were Emma and William.

Here are Denmark’s top 10 girl names and top 10 boy names of 2014:

Girl Names Boy Names
1. Emma
2. Sofia
3. Ida
4. Freja
5. Clara
6. Laura
7. Anna
8. Ella
9. Isabella
10. Karla 		1. William
2. Noah
3. Lucas
4. Oscar
5. Victor
6. Malthe
7. Emil
8. Frederik
9. Oliver
10. Magnus

New to the girls’ top 10 are Ella and Karla, which replace Sofie and Josefine.

New to the boys’ top 10 is Malthe, which replaces Alexander.

Malthe jumped from 22nd place in 2013 to 6th last year likely because of a 14-year-old contestant on Denmark’s Voice Junior named Malthe. (He has brothers named Asbjørn and Halfdan, btw.)

The boy names Nohr, Sander, Asger and the girl names Signe, Liv, Alba, Aya all entered the top 50 in 2014.

Sources: Names of newborn children, Denmark’s top baby names revealed

Popular Baby Names in Spain, 2014

According to data from Spain’s Instituto Nacional de Estadistica, the most popular baby names in Spain in 2014 were Lucia and Hugo.

Here are Spain’s top 10 girl names and top 10 boy names of 2014:

Girl Names Boy Names
1. Lucia, 5,161 baby girls
2. Maria, 4,951
3. Martina, 4,380
4. Paula, 4,210
5. Daniela, 3,792
6. Sofia, 3,568
7. Valeria, 3,246
8. Carla, 3,138
9. Sara, 3,116
10. Alba, 3,111 		1. Hugo, 5,121 baby boys
2. Daniel, 4,859
3. Pablo, 4,494
4. Alejandro, 4,116
5. Alvaro, 3,670
6. Adrian, 3,463
7. David, 3,376
8. Martin, 3,181
9. Mario, 3,067
10. Diego, 3,000

Alba (was 11th) replaces Julia (now 11th) in the girls’ top 10.

Martin (was 20th) replaces Javier (now 11th) in the boys’ top 10.

Here are the 2013 baby names rankings for Spain, if you’d like to compare.

And, just for fun, let’s also check out the nearly 5 million foreign nationals living in Spain. The most common first names among expats (grouped by nation of origin) are:

Female Expat Names Male Expat Names
1. Fatima (Morocco), 18,493 females
2. Maria (Romania), 12,547
3. Elena (Romania), 10,629
4. Khadija (Morocco), 8,339
5. Mariana (Romania), 7,535
6. Mihaela (Romania), 6,050
7. Ana Maria (Romania), 5,265
8. Aicha (Morocco), 5,208
9. Naima (Morocco), 4,963
10. Daniela (Romania), 4,823 		1. Mohamed (Moroccan), 40,658 males*
2. Mohammed (Moroccan), 19,401
3. Ahmed (Moroccan), 15,003
4. Said (Moroccan), 9,513
5. Gheorghe (Romanian), 9,399
6. Vasile (Romanian), 9,045
7. Ioan (Romanian), 9,035
8. Rachid (Moroccan), 8,956
9. Youssef (Moroccan), 8,583
10. Mustapha (Moroccan), 7,468

*The total for Mohamed is even higher when you factor in the 2,436 Mohameds that came from Algeria.

Sources: Instituto Nacional de Estadistica, And the most common expat name in Spain is…

Popular Baby Names in Spain, 2013

What are the top baby names in Spain?

According to data from the Instituto Nacional de Estadística, the most popular baby names last year were Lucia and Hugo.

Here are Spain’s top 20 girl names and top 20 boy names of 2013:

Girl Names Boy Names
1. Lucia
2. Maria
3. Paula
4. Daniela
5. Martina
6. Carla
7. Sara
8. Sofia
9. Valeria
10. Julia
11. Alba
12. Claudia
13. Noa
14. Marta
15. Irene
16. Emma
17. Carmen
18. Laura
19. Ana
20. Ainhoa 		1. Hugo
2. Daniel
3. Pablo
4. Alejandro
5. Alvaro
6. Adrian
7. David
8. Mario
9. Diego
10. Javier
11. Lucas
12. Nicolas
13. Manuel
14. Marcos
15. Iker
16. Sergio
17. Izan
18. Jorge
19. Carlos
20. Martin

I found this list via Name News by Clare, who said:

So many names I’d never have guessed (and, in some cases, have never heard of) here, like Alvaro, Ainhoa, Aitana, Leire, Nerea, and Ainara.

I agree. I also didn’t expect to see the boy names Aitor (35th), Asier (58th) or Unai (60th). Or the girl name Africa, which was 68th — way more common in Spain than here.

(Aitana, Leire, Nerea, and Ainara ranked 26th, 28th, 31st and 29th for girls, respectively.)

I haven’t blogged about the top names in Spain before, but I did have a post about the top names in Catalonia last year. Weirdly, I looked up Unai for that post — it’s Basque and means “cowherd.”

Source: Instituto Nacional de Estadística (via Name News, via Nomes e mais nomes)

Most Popular Baby Names in Catalonia, 2012

Last year, the top baby names in Catalonia — an autonomous region in northeastern Spain — were Marc for boys and Julia for girls.

Here are Catalonia’s top 20 girl names and top 20 boy names of 2012:

Baby Girl Names Baby Boy Names
1. Júlia/Julia (954 baby girls)
2. Martina (889)
3. Laia (833)
4. Carla (748)
5. Paula (697)
6. Maria/María (683)
7. Lucía (656)
8. Aina (591)
9. Noa (548)
10. Sara (529)
11. Clàudia/Claudia (528)
12. Emma (515)
13. Ariadna (452)
14. Alba (451)
15. Abril (380)
16. Arlet (369)
17. Daniela (355)
18. Jana (348)
19. Berta (338)
20. Ona (333) 		1. Marc (1,125 baby boys)
2. Àlex/Álex (753)
3. Èric/Eric (735)
4. Pol (696)
5. Pau (669)
6. Hugo (640)
7. Biel (636)
8. Arnau (621)
9. Gerard (600)
10. Jan (589)
11. Martí (577)
12. Nil (538)
13. Aleix (450)
14. David (441)
15. Oriol (431)
16. Daniel (425)
17. Adam (405)
18. Joel (379)
19. Adrià (373)
20. Iker (372)

Iker, regularly a top-20 name in Catalonia, was rare in the U.S. just a decade ago. Today, usage of Iker is rising rapidly. It entered the top 1,000 in 2010 and already ranked 230th in 2012.

Who kicked off the Iker trend? Soccer player Iker Casillas Fernandez. (His younger brother also has an interesting name — Unai, a Basque word meaning “cowherd.”)

Source: Institut d’Estadística de Catalunya