A few weeks ago, Italy finally released baby name rankings for 2015. According to the data from Istat (Istituto nazionale di statistica), the most popular baby names in the country last year were Sofia and Francesco.
Here are Italy’s top 10 girl names and top 10 boy names of 2015:
| Girl Names | Boy Names |
|---|---|
| 1. Sofia, 7,191 baby girls 2. Aurora, 6,687 3. Giulia, 6,222 4. Giorgia, 4,099 5. Alice, 3,845 6. Martina, 3,743 7. Emma, 3,690 8. Greta, 3,676 9. Chiara, 3,516 10. Anna, 3,322 | 1. Francesco, 8,763 baby boys 2. Alessandro, 6,708 3. Mattia, 6,402 4. Lorenzo, 6,389 5. Leonardo, 6,144 6. Andrea, 6,047 7. Gabriele, 5,469 8. Matteo, 4,941 9. Tommaso, 4,386 10. Riccardo, 4,351 |
In the girls’ top 10, Anna replaced Sara, and Alice jumped from 10th to 5th.
The boys’ top 10 is essentially the same, the biggest move being Mattia rising from 6th to 3rd.
Francesco has been on top since 2001, but it became even more popular in 2013 after Pope Francis was elected.
Here are a few more names from within the top 50:
- Girl names: Ginevra (12th), Gaia (13th), Ludovica (32nd), Ilaria (46th)
- Boy names: Nicolò (22nd), Simone (24th), Gioele (37th), Nicola (46th)
Nicolò is pronounced nee-ko-LO, whereas Nicola is pronounced nee-KO-lah. The feminine versions of the name are Nicoletta and Nicolina.
Finally, here are the top baby names among foreigners (mainly from Romania, Morocco, Albania and China) living in Italy:
| Girl Names | Boy Names |
|---|---|
| 1. Sara 2. Sofia 3. Aurora | 1. Adam 2. Youssef 3. Rayan |
Intriguingly, Kevin was ranked 8th for boys and 1st (!) among both the Albanians and the Chinese. I mentioned Kevinism in last week’s Senga post and already it’s coming to mind again…
Sources: How many babies are named…? – Istat, These are the most popular Italian baby names, Births and fertility among the resident population: Year 2015 (PDF)
Image: Adapted from Flag of Italy (public domain)
