According to data from Statistics Belgium, the country’s most popular baby names last year were Emma and Louis.
Here are Belgium’s top 10 girl names and top 10 boy names of 2015:
Girl Names
- Emma, 645 baby girls
- Louise, 596
- Olivia, 538
- Elise, 437
- Alice, 428
- Juliette, 404
- Mila, 400
- Lucie, 389
- Marie, 383
- Camille, 366
Boy Names
- Louis, 613 baby boys
- Arthur, 606
- Noah, 586
- Lucas, 572
- Liam, 561
- Adam, 543
- Victor, 487
- Jules, 468
- Mohamed, 461
- Nathan, 450
In the girls’ top 10, Mila and Camille replaced Lina and Ella.
In the boys’ top 10, Victor replaced Mathis.
Emma and Louis were also the top names in 2014.
Here are the top names within each of the three regions:
| Region | Girl Names | Boy Names |
|---|---|---|
| Flanders (58% of Belgians) Language: Dutch | 1. Louise 2. Emma 3. Marie 4. Elise 5. Ella | 1. Lucas 2. Liam 3. Arthur 4. Louis 5. Noah |
| Wallonia (32% of Belgians) Language: mostly French | 1. Léa 2. Lucie 3. Alice 4. Emma 5. Chloé | 1. Louis 2. Hugo 3. Nathan 4. Noah 5. Gabriel |
| Brussels (10% of Belgians) Languages: Dutch/French | 1. Nour 2. Lina 3. Sofia 4. Sara 5. Yasmine | 1. Adam 2. Mohamed 3. Gabriel 4. Rayan 5. David |
I find it interesting that Olivia, the 3rd-most-popular baby girl name in the country overall, didn’t hit the top 5 in any of the three regions. It came in 6th in both Flanders and Wallonia and 11th in Brussels.
Source: Voornamen van meisjes en jongens – Statbel
Image: Adapted from Flag of Belgium (public domain)
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Fascinating! You can certainly see by the name choices that immigrants are changing the demographics is Brussels.
It’s always so interesting to compare the top baby names in major cities vs. in the surrounding regions. Easy to see where all the diversity is…