According to data from Malta’s National Statistics Office, the most popular name-groups in Malta in 2014 were Elena/Elenia/Helena/Ella and Luke/Luca/Lucas.
Here are Malta’s top 10 girl and boy name-groups of 2014:
Girl Names
- Elena/Elenia/Helena/Ella, 97 baby girls
- Julia/Yulia/Julianne, 72
- Emma/Emmanuela/Ema, 70
- Eliza/Elisa/Elizabeth/Elise, 69
- Catherine/Katrina/Kate/Katya, 46
- Maya/Mia/Myah, 44
- Lea/Leah/Leia, 42
- Emilia/Emily/Emelie, 41
- Amy/Aimee, 39
- Maria/Marija/Mariah/Marie, 37 [tie]
- Anna/Hannah/Ann, 37 [tie]
Boy Names
- Luke/Luca/Lucas, 98 baby boys
- Matthew/Matthias/Matteo, 97
- Jacob/Jake, 77
- Zachary/Zak/Zack, 59
- Michael/Miguel/Mikhail, 53
- Liam/William, 51 [tie]
- John/Jean/Jonathan/Juan/Gan, 51 [tie]
- Benjamin/Ben, 51
- Kaiden/Kayden/Kai ,46 [tie]
- Alexander/Alessandro/Alec, 46 [tie]
- Andrew/Andreas/Andre/Andy, 45
- Joseph/Beppe/Giuseppe/Josef, 40
Down in 15th place on the boys’ side is “Yannick/Yan” — both are versions of John, and yet they’re not part of the John group, which is tied for 6th.
Speaking of strange things…
(My blog also cannot handle Maltese fonts, or else I’d be able to write out that paragraph for you.)
I’ve seen governments (e.g., NWT, California) make excuses about not being able to render minority/ethnic names properly on birth certificates, but I’ve never heard of a country that couldn’t render names from its own national language.
Oh, Malta.
Here are the 2013, 2012, 2009, 2007, and 2006 rankings.
Sources: Naming Babies – National Statistics Office – Malta, Luke and Elena remain most popular names given to newborns, ‘Dotty’ system bars patriot baby names
Image: Adapted from Flag of Malta (public domain)
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