According to data from Statistics Belgium, the country’s most popular baby names in 2014 were Emma and Louis.
Here are Belgium’s top 10 baby names:
| Girl Names | Boy Names |
|---|---|
| 1. Emma, 653 baby girls 2. Louise, 584 3. Elise, 480 4. Olivia, 459 5. Lina, 383 6. Marie, 376 7. Lucie, 359 8. Ella, 348 9. Alice, 347 (tie) 10. Juliette, 347 (tie) | 1. Louis, 622 baby boys 2. Lucas, 619 3. Arthur, 610 4. Adam, 575 5. Noah, 562 6. Liam, 513 7. Mohamed, 468 8. Nathan, 455 9. Jules, 442 10. Mathis, 428 |
In the girls’ top 10, Ella and Alice replaced Léa and Mila.
The boys’ top 10 includes the same 10 names.
But there’s more! Like Switzerland, Belgium breaks name data down by region. So let’s also check out the top names within each region.
About 58% of Belgians live in the northern region, Flanders, where the official language is Dutch. Here are the top 10 baby names in Flanders:
| Girl Names | Boy Names |
|---|---|
| 1. Emma, 381 baby girls 2. Elise, 351 3. Louise, 344 4. Ella, 329 5. Marie, 309 6. Noor, 269 7. Lena, 251 8. Julie, 246 9. Lotte, 231 10. Mila, 227 | 1. Lucas, 329 baby boys 2. Liam, 316 3. Vince, 309 4. Arthur, 307 5. Noah, 300 6. Finn, 298 7. Mathis, 276 8. Louis, 274 9. Seppe, 248 10. Jules, 244 (tie) 10. Stan, 244 (tie) |
In the girls’ top 10, Lena replaced Fien (short for Jozefien, the Dutch form of Josephine).
In the boys’ top 10, Seppe and Jules replaced Lars and Alexander.
I would have guessed that Seppe was a diminutive of Joseph (akin to the German name Sepp). According to a Behind the Name contributor, though, Seppe is a West Frisian name that can be traced back to Sibe, a “Frisian short form of masculine names that have sigu or sigis for a first element” and a second element begins with the letter b (e.g., Sibald, Sibert).
About 32% of Belgians live in the southern region, Wallonia, where the official language is French (and, in some areas, German). Here are the top 10 baby names for Wallonia:
| Girl Names | Boy Names |
|---|---|
| 1. Léa, 263 baby girls 2. Lucie, 244 3. Chloé, 218 4. Zoé, 216 5. Emma, 208 6. Louise, 200 7. Alice, 200 8. Camille, 198 9. Olivia, 191 10. Jade, 154 | 1. Hugo, 314 baby boys 2. Louis, 308 3. Gabriel, 255 4. Arthur, 245 5. Nathan, 242 6. Théo, 235 7. Lucas, 225 8. Ethan, 213 9. Noah, 208 10. Tom, 195 |
In the girls’ top 10, Jade replaced Manon.
The boys’ top 10 includes the same 10 names.
About 10% of Belgians live in the Brussels Capital Region, where the official languages are Dutch and French. Here are the top top 10 baby names for Brussels:
| Girl Names | Boy Names |
|---|---|
| 1. Lina, 119 baby girls 2. Aya, 84 3. Sarah, 78 4. Sofia, 77 5. Nour, 70 6. Yasmine, 67 7. Malak, 66 8. Emma, 64 9. Sara, 62 10. Anna, 56 | 1. Adam, 233 baby boys 2. Mohamed, 195 3. Rayan, 94 4. Gabriel, 82 5. David, 81 6. Imran, 69 7. Amir, 66 8. Lucas, 65 (tie) 9. Youssef, 65 (tie) 10. Yanis, 59 |
In the girls’ top 10, Malak and Anna replaced Ines and Louise. In the boy’s top 10, Amir, Lucas and Yanis replaced Ayoub, Nathan and Anas.
Morocco World News notes that “heavy immigration from Morocco and other Muslim countries has left its traces, as Mohamed has been the most common male name in the Brussels Region recently.” Mohamed was the #1 boy name in Brussels from the late 1990s until 2011, in fact. And the same wave of immigration has given a big boost to many other Arabic names (Amir, Bilal, Hamza, Imran, Malak, Nour, Rayan, Yousra, etc.) within the last few decades.
Sources: Steeds meer verschillende voornamen, maar Emma en Louis houden stand, Lina, Aya, and Mohamed Among Most Popular Baby Names in Brussels
Image: Adapted from Flag of Belgium (public domain)
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Seppe is indeed a Frisian name, although I wouldn’t be surprised if many Flemings interpret is as a form of Joseph as well.
Stan could be short for Stanley, but in a Belgian context I think Constans or maybe Stanislaus is more likely.
In the Netherlands, Adam is mainly popular with parents of Moroccan decent. I assume this is the case in Belgium as wel..
Thanks, Maarten!