The British overseas territory of Gibraltar is a narrow peninsula jutting out from the southern coast of Spain.
Though the official language of Gibraltar is English, most Gibraltarians also speak Spanish. (In fact, the mix of Andalusian Spanish and British English spoken by locals has its own name: Llanito.)
Last year, Gibraltar welcomed 364 babies — “almost a baby for every day of 2022.” There were 179 baby girls and 185 baby boys.
And what were the most popular names among these babies? Sienna and Elijah/Leo (tie).
Here are Gibraltar’s top girl names and top boy names of 2022:
Girl names
- Sienna, 6 baby girls
- Ava and Lucia, 5 each (tie)
- Emily, Isabella, and Valentina, 4 each (3-way tie)
- Amelia, Chloe, Isla, Lauren, and Lily, 3 each (5-way tie)
- Charlotte, Eliza, Elsie, Gabriella, India, Luna, Mia, Robyn, Sophie, Thalia, and Tiana, 2 each (11-way tie)
Boy names
- Elijah and Leo, 5 baby boys each (tie)
- Noah, Oliver, Theo, and Thomas, 4 each (4-way tie)
- Jamie, Lewis, Lucas, and Thiago, 3 each (4-way tie)
- Amir, Arthur, Erik, Freddie, Gabriel, Hugo, Isaac, Jack, Jacob, James, Jason, Joseph, Kai, Liam, Logan, Louie, Luca, Mason, Matthew, Niall, Nico, Ryan, Theodore, and Zayn, 2 each (24-way tie)
The rest of the names were each bestowed once. (Except for Riley, which was bestowed twice overall — once for each gender.)
| Unique girl names (120) | Unique boy names (93) |
| Ada, Adeline, Adelyn, Ahriella, Alba, Alessandra, Alis, Alisha, Aliyanna, Alona, Amaya, Amelie-Rae, Amira, Ana, Andie, Anna, Aoife, April, Arabella, Ari, Aria, Ariana, Arianna, Arieya, Aris, Aubrey, Avery, Cali, Callie, Celeste, Cipbelynn, Cora, Daisy, Daisy-Ray, Dayana, Elise, Ellen, Emma, Esme, Estella, Evelyn, Fae, Farah, Faye, Fern, Florence, Haley, Harlequin, Hayley, Ines, Jessie, Josephine, Josie, Julia, Kairo, Kennan, Kian, Killian, Kyel, Kylo, Kate, Katie, Kyla, Kythea, Layan, Layla, Leah, Leticia, Lina, Lottie, Maeva, Maia, Manuela, Margaret, Margot, Mariam, Matilde, Maya, Mayra, Melianne, Mila, Millie, Molly, Neriah, Nora, Nylah-Mae, Poppy, Presley, Quinn, Radhika, Raya, Renaelia, Rhianne, Riley, Roeeya, Rose, Ruby, Rumi, Sara, Savannah, Selina, Shannah, Siera, Snow, Sophia, Stella, Summer, Talia, Tasnim, Thea, Tillie, Willow, Winter, Yael, Yara, Yasmin, Yui, Zahra, Zaphyr, Zoe | Abdurhman, Abel, Airam, Alaa, Alfie, Alfred, Andrei, Anthony, Archie, Ariel, Asher, Ashton, Austin, Axton, Bear, Benas, Bowie, Bradley, Cairo, Carlos, Charlie, Cody, Crislee, Dante, Domenico, Dominic, Dylan, Elias, Elis, Emilian, Emilio, Ethan, Evan, Finley, Frankie, Gary, Gian, Graham, Haroun, Henry, Hudson, Imram, Iyad, Jake, Jax, Jay, Jayce, Jayden, Jesse, Jonah, Joud, Leigh, Louis, Luis, Luke, Manuel, Marco, Mattia, Maxwell, Michael, Millel, Nassim, Nathan, Neo, Nicholas, Nicolas, Nilan, Noa, Nuveshshing, Nyan, Nyle, Oscar, Otis, Otto, Ray, Rayan, Remy, Riley, Rocco, Romeo, Samy, Scott, Sebastian, Shane, Stephen, Teo, Tommy, Tyler, Wael, Yaqub, Zachary, Zack, Zuhayr |
Finally, here are Gibraltar’s 2021 rankings, if you’d like to compare last year to the year before.
P.S. Did you know that John Lennon and Yoko Ono got married in Gibraltar in March of 1969?
Sources:
- “Sienna, Leo & Elijah – most popular baby names of 2022.” GBC News 26 Jan. 2023.
- Gibraltar – Wikipedia
Image: Adapted from Flag of Gibraltar (public domain)
Funny you should ask, because when I saw the email subject, I said to myself, “The only thing I know about Gibraltar is that John & Yoko got married there, per ‘The Ballad of John & Yoko.'” I didn’t know it was large enough for 364 babies to be born in a year.
The name I am most curious about is Cipbellyn. I wonder if they made it up, and if so, is their profession pharmaceutical marketing, because that looks like something I should ask my doctor about prescribing. I googled and the only result was a press release about baby names from Gibraltar in 2022.