Popular baby names in Belgium, 2020

According to data from Statistics Belgium, the country’s most popular baby names last year were Olivia and Arthur.

Here are Belgium’s top 10 girl names and top 10 boy names of 2020:

Girl Names

1. Olivia, 548 baby girls
2. Emma, 529
3. Mila, 489
4. Louise, 432
5. Lina, 411
6. Alice, 361
7. Sofia, 359
8. Mia, 353
9. Anna, 350
10. Juliette, 332

Boy Names

1. Arthur, 587 baby boys
2. Noah, 564
3. Jules, 543
4. Louis, 499
5. Lucas, 467 (tie)
6. Liam, 467 (tie)
7. Adam, 443
8. Victor, 412
9. Gabriel, 384
10. Mohamed, 345

In the girls’ top 10, Sofia and Mia replaced Elena and Lucie.

The boys’ top 10 includes the same names, but in a different order.

In the girls’ top 100, the names that saw the largest increases in usage were Alba (+142%), Capucine (+55%), and Lea (+45%).

In the boys’ top 100, the names that saw the largest increases were Otis (+68%), Oliver (+34%), and Charles (+31%).

In each of Belgium’s three main regions, the top baby names were…

• Flanders (about 58% of the population): Olivia and Noah
• Wallonia (about 32%): Emma and Gabriel
• Brussels-Capital Region (about 11%): Sofia and Mohamed

Finally, here’s a selection of baby names that were given to just 5 babies each in Belgium last year:

Rare Girl Names	Rare Boy Names
Aubane, Bibi, Célou, Diyana, Emmelien, Frauke, Hadia, Ianthe, Jitte, Kessy, Lumi, Minthe, Noussayba, Oana, Phéline, Rokaya, Sabina, Thilly, Vaiana, Ylana, Zineb	Aurian, Baziel, Camiel, Dalil, Elyan, Fabrice, Haris, Imraan, Jorik, Kabir, Leart, Maëlio, Nélio, Ole, Peter, Runar, Shimon, Tiesj, Virgile, Yllan, Zayi

In 2019, the top two names in Belgium were also Olivia and Arthur.

Sources: First names for boys and girls | Statbel, Demographics of Belgium – Wikipedia

Image: Adapted from Flag of Belgium (public domain)