In 2007, the most popular names in Brussels (the capital of both Belgium and the European Union) were Lina/Sara (tied) and Mohamed.
These were the city’s top 10 girl names and top 10 boy names:
Girl names
- Lina, 94 baby girls (tie)
- Sarah, 94 (tie)
- Aya, 86
- Yasmine, 71
- Rania, 70 (tie)
- Sara, 70 (tie)
- Salma, 69
- Imane, 63
- Ines, 56
- Clara, 49
Boy names
- Mohamed, 235 baby boys
- Adam, 169
- Rayan, 84
- Nathan, 81
- Gabriel, 66
- Amine, 62
- Ayoub, 58 (tie)
- Mehdi, 58 (tie)
- Lucas, 56
- Anas, 54
According to Brussel Nieuws.be, the number of births between 2002 and 2007 rose by 8.4% for boys and 9.2% for girls, but the total number of different names increased by 17.0% and 20.7%, respectively. Very interesting…
And what about the unique names? They included:
Unique boy names | Unique girl names |
Adonis, Arafat, Aristote, Aristoteles, Babaloluwa, Beau-Luccio, Blade, Blij, Bonheur, Boy, Broes, C-jay, Christ-Yehochua, Devo, Diesel, Dieumerci, Dike, Doedoe, Elegast, Ensor, Euro, Exaucé, Faithwins, Fox-Anthony, Goodwill, Grimm, Harley-Davidson, Jazz, Jean-Public, Jefken, Joyeux, Kennedy, Kyuss, Lancelot, Lion, Lowie-Viktoor, Maddox, Mekongo-Willy, Mel-Gibson, Merlijn, Moon, Mouhamadousaikou, Mozes, Muhammed-Ali, Odd, Okay, Precieux, Prodige, Quossay, Ridder, Rocco, Serafin, Sky, Spencer-Cash, Stier, Strong, Sufjan, Sunday, Sunny, Synphorien, Thoth, Thörgal, Trésor, Vangelis, Volkan, Vos, Welcome, Wens, Wolf | Alaska, Allégresse, Babbe, Babel, Babsi, Bambi, Beertje, Believe, Berin, Beste, Bilitis, Blue, Camus-Salomé, Charisma, Choupette, Condoleezza, Cozmo, Creator, December, Destinée, Destiny, Diva, Echo, Elf, Elie-Blue, Ella-Blue, Enola-Jane, Exaucée, Exocée, Ezel, Fidelité, Glorieuse, Glory, Godwill, Hallelujah, Honesty, Harmonie, Ijoux, India-Summer, Joyful, Kadiatoudiallo, Kikie, Lorelei, Lucrecia-Shanice, Luu-Ly, Lux, Mackenzie, Magnificat, Magnolia, Mammelow, Man, Marvelous, Meadow, Melody, Merel, Missie, Missy, Muze, Nanouk, Netje, Pixie, Salvatrice, Santana, Sherilyn-Morissette, Summer, Sun, Sway, Trinity, Venus, Victory, Vlinder, Winter, Zonne |
(I believe the above were culled from records covering the entire country, not just Brussels.)
Sources: Algemene Directie Statistiek, Mohamed tops baby name list in Brussels, Belgian Baby Names 2007
Image: Adapted from Flag of Belgium (public domain)
Just goes to show you how densely the area has been populated by refugees from the Middle East.