According to data from Statistics Belgium, the country’s most popular baby names last year were Olivia and Noah.
Here are Belgium’s top 50 girl names and top 50 boy names of 2021:
Girl Names
- Olivia, 580 baby girls
- Emma, 500
- Louise, 455
- Mila, 435
- Alice, 416
- Camille, 403
- Lina, 394
- Sofia, 359
- Ella, 352
- Juliette, 346
- Nora, 342
- Mia, 325
- Marie, 317
- Lucie, 314
- Anna, 303
- Jade, 296
- Elena, 281
- Eva, 280
- Julia, 279
- Noor, 263
- Nina, 256
- Léa, 252
- Victoria, 249
- Chloé, 244
- Alix, 235
- Lou, 232
- Elise, 220
- Zoé, 215
- Giulia, 212
- Ellie, 210 (tie)
- Luna, 210 (tie)
- Liv, 209
- Renée, 207
- Amélie, 204
- Inaya, 202
- Rose, 194
- Charlotte, 191
- Jeanne, 188 (tie)
- Lily, 188 (tie)
- Lena, 187
- Sara, 176
- Manon, 171
- Julie, 170
- Mona, 160
- Alba, 159
- Livia, 155
- Billie, 154 (tie)
- Sophia, 154 (tie)
- Amira, 146
- Clara, 144 (tie)
- Stella, 144 (tie)
Boy Names
- Noah, 627 baby boys
- Arthur, 584
- Louis, 558
- Liam, 537
- Jules, 526
- Adam, 474
- Lucas, 426
- Gabriel, 422
- Victor, 416
- Oscar, 336
- Leon, 310
- Mathis, 294 (tie)
- Mohamed, 294 (tie)
- Finn, 289
- Léon, 275
- Matteo, 264
- Lewis, 251
- Hugo, 245
- Nathan, 238
- Luca, 234
- Elias, 225
- Raphaël, 223
- Théo, 221
- Amir, 217 (tie)
- Eden, 217 (tie)
- Rayan, 209
- Lou, 208
- Milo, 205
- Yanis, 204
- Achille, 201
- Otis, 194
- Sacha, 191 (tie)
- Vic, 191 (tie)
- Felix, 190
- Marcel, 187
- Basile, 185
- Aaron, 179
- Léo, 178
- Maurice, 174
- Alexander, 173
- Maël, 171
- Emiel, 168 (tie)
- Georges, 168 (tie)
- Jack, 167 (tie)
- William, 167 (tie)
- Emile, 163 (tie)
- Vince, 163 (tie)
- Samuel, 161
- Gaston, 159
- Oliver, 158
If Leon and Léon had been counted as a single name, their combined total (585) would have been enough to edge Arthur (584) out of second place on the boys’ list.
And the gender-neutral name Lou managed to pop up on both lists in nearly the same spot: 26th for girls, 27th for boys.
The top baby names within each of Belgium’s three regions were…
| Girl Names | Boy Names | |
| Flanders (57.6% of the population) Language: Dutch | 1. Olivia, 328 2. Ella, 303 3. Marie, 275 4. Mila, 266 5. Nora, 261 | 1. Noah, 399 2. Arthur, 321 3. Jules, 311 4. Leon, 288 5. Louis, 284 |
| Wallonia (31.8% of pop.) Languages: French/German | 1. Emma, 204 2. Olivia, 203 3. Louise, 190 4. Alice, 188 (tie) 5. Lucie, 188 (tie) | 1. Gabriel, 266 2. Louis, 235 3. Liam, 233 4. Arthur, 208 5. Jules, 191 |
| Brussels-Capital (10.6% of pop.) Languages: Dutch/French | 1. Lina, 89 2. Sofia, 83 3. Emma, 60 (tie) 4. Nour, 60 (tie) 5. Olivia, 49 | 1. Mohamed, 118 2. Adam, 112 3. Gabriel, 82 4. Amir, 70 5. Noah, 62 |
And here’s a selection of names from the other end of the spectrum — names that were given to just 5 babies each in Belgium last year:
| Rare Girl Names | Rare Boy Names |
| Anabia, Believe, Caro, Dea, Elaïa, Fallone, Gaby, Heike, Iluna, Jennifer, Kessy, Lyssia, Mahsa, Nihal, Otice, Puck, Queen, Ramla, Siloé, Toos, Vlera, Wassila, Yseult, Zuri | Aloys, Brandon, Celle, Doruk, Erion, Fedde, Gustav, Hazar, Ilyass, Jip, Karsten, Lothar, Maksim, Nellis, Obi, Paulin, Qays, Riff, Silvio, Tille, Vidar, Wiebe, Yavuz, Zjef |
(I’m a little surprised that as many as 5 baby girls in Belgium got the English word “believe” as their first name. I wonder if something specific was influencing that usage…?)
This time around, Belgium also highlighted the girl and boy names that saw the largest increases and decreases in usage over the last decade (2011-2021). The top 5 in each category were…
- Girl names
- Largest increases: Alba, Ellie, Ellis, Alya, Cilou
- Largest decreases: Lisa, Laura, Julie, Lotte, Anaïs
- Boy names
- Largest increases: Georges, Lio, Gaston, Otis, Lyam
- Largest decreases: Maxime, Thomas, Simon, Wout, Nathan
Finally, here’s a link to Belgium’s 2020 rankings, if you’d like to compare.
Sources: First names for boys and girls | STATBEL, Demographics of Belgium – Wikipedia
Image: Adapted from Flag of Belgium (public domain)
Map: Adapted from Regions of Belgium by Ssolbergj under CC BY 3.0.
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