The Netherlands’ top baby names of 2013 were announced a little while ago.
According to data from the Sociale Verzekeringsbank (SVB), the country’s most popular baby names last year were Tess and Sem.
Here are The Netherlands’ top 20 girl names and top 20 boy names of 2013:
| Girl Names | Boy Names |
|---|---|
| 1. Tess 2. Sophie 3. Julia 4. Emma 5. Lisa 6. Fenna 7. Mila 8. Sara 9. Lotte 10. Zoe 11. Eva 12. Anna 13. Fleur 14. Isa 15. Lynn 16. Evi 17. Lieke 18. Saar 19. Noa 20. Sanne | 1. Sem 2. Levi 3. Bram 4. Daan 5. Finn 6. Milan 7. Lucas 8. Luuk 9. Jesse 10. Jayden 11. Tim 12. Thomas 13. Thijs 14. Noah 15. Julian 16. Ruben 17. Liam 18. Lars 19. Stijn 20. Sam |
The top names of 2012? Emma and Daan, both of which fell to 4th place last year.
Speaking of falling, Jayden continues to sink — 9th to 10th this time. (Jayden is also losing steam in the U.S.)
Source: Sociale Verzekeringsbank (via Tess en Sem zijn de populairste babynamen van 2013!)
Image: Adapted from Flag of the Netherlands (public domain)
Pretty sure Jayden isnt the only one falling… Jesse, Tim, Ruben, Sam, I’d imagine those are going down too in the US
I wonder when the Dutch started preferring such short names and nicknames? We know a couple of Dutch families and they all have long names like Mathilde, Ferdinand, and Jacobus–all born pre-1970s though.
Diane, good question. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything written (in English) about short names and nicknames being trendy in the Netherlands. I’ll have to ask Emma (Voornamelijk) and Maarten (Vernoeming), see what they say…
Just heard from Emma. Her post about Dutch names getting shorter shows how the average length of baby names shrank from 6.0 letters in 1983 to 5.1 letters in 2011. This doesn’t cover the pre-1970s era, but it’s a start!