The South American country of Uruguay doesn’t publish an annual list of top baby names per se, but Uruguay’s Dirección Nacional de Identificación Civil (DNIC) does release a list of all the names used among people who obtained their Uruguayan identity card for the first time within a given year.
As we saw in 2021 and 2020, the DNIC rankings combine all names (male and female) together on a single list, but don’t combine different forms of the same name (e.g., Maria and María) into single entries on that list. Most notably, the rankings account for not just first-name usage, but also second-name usage (as Uruguayans are allowed to include a maximum of two given names on their identity cards).
So now that we have all that out of the way… the DNIC data reveals that the most-registered names in the country in 2022 were María and Juan.
Here are Uruguay’s top 100+ registered names of 2022:
- María, 1,170 babies
- Juan, 1,138
- Maria, 1,108
- Isabella, 885
- Benjamín, 780
- Emma, 766
- Mateo, 728
- Valentina, 660
- Catalina, 659
- Luis, 648
- Alejandro, 647
- Martina, 640
- Felipe, 637
- Carlos, 589
- Valentín, 568
- Ezequiel, 562
- Emilia, 559
- Manuel, 556
- Daniel, 555
- Lorenzo, 550
- Julieta, 546
- José, 535
- Gabriel, 518
- Jose, 517
- Nicolás, 491
- Sofía, 486
- Ignacio, 455
- Alberto, 452
- Santiago, 450
- Francisco, 442
- David, 438
- Agustín, 435
- Olivia, 429
- Josefina, 422
- Valentino, 416
- Antonio, 410 (tie)
- Lucas, 410 (tie)
- Bautista, 405
- Delfina, 396
- Lautaro, 389
- Benjamin, 384
- Eduardo, 383
- Belén, 378
- Thiago, 372
- Gael, 371
- Santino, 370
- Victoria, 367
- Javier, 365
- Agustina, 363
- Jorge, 362
- Emiliano, 358
- Dante, 357
- Alexander, 351
- Tomás, 342
- Paulina, 335
- Miguel, 334
- Rafael, 329
- Ana, 324
- Joaquín, 320
- Samuel, 315
- Pablo, 313
- Sofia, 309
- Pilar, 308
- Diego, 307
- Zoe, 306
- Alfonsina, 300
- Renata, 297
- Clara, 278 (3-way tie)
- Liam, 278 (3-way tie)
- Sebastián, 278 (3-way tie)
- Milagros, 276
- Francesca, 271
- Fernando, 268
- Emily, 265
- Enrique, 262
- Facundo, 261
- Federico, 260 (tie)
- Pedro, 260 (tie)
- Angel, 258
- Bastian, 253
- Bruno, 252 (tie)
- Martín, 252 (tie)
- Alejandra, 251
- Carolina, 249 (tie)
- Noah, 249 (tie)
- Guadalupe, 246
- Nicolas, 243
- Vicente, 240
- Enzo, 235
- Salvador, 228
- Sebastian, 227
- Juana, 225
- Valentin, 222
- Guillermo, 220
- Alma, 218 (tie)
- Emanuel, 218 (tie)
- Nahuel, 215
- Camila, 211 (tie)
- Elena, 211 (tie)
- Andres, 210
- Andrés, 209 (3-way tie)
- Benicio, 209 (3-way tie)
- Paz, 209 (3-way tie)
- Gabriela, 208
- Beatriz, 207
- Ciro, 206 (tie)
- Martin, 206 (tie)
- Maite, 203
- Andrea, 202
- Elizabeth, 200 (tie)
- Laura, 200 (tie)
- Isabel, 199 (tie)
- Mia, 199 (tie)
- Luciano, 198
- Ismael, 197
- Jazmín, 195
- Camilo, 194
- Marcelo, 192
- Franco, 190
- Agustin, 189
- Alfonso, 187
- Aitana, 186 (tie)
- Bianca, 186 (tie)
- Ramiro, 185
- Gustavo, 184
- Cataleya, 183
- Roberto, 178
- Ariel, 176
- Lucía, 174
- Micaela, 173 (tie)
- Ricardo, 173 (tie)
(I went down this far to ensure that at least fifty girl names were included.)
Here are a few names from lower down on the list:
- 80 babies were named Celeste, which is the nickname of Uruguay’s national soccer team.
- Only 35 babies were named Celeste in 2020.
- 73 babies were named Aylen, and roughly two hundred more were given a different spelling of the name (e.g., Ayelen, Aylén, Ayelén, Aylín, Aylin). This is a Mapuche name with several possible meanings, including “ember” and “clear.”
- 38 babies were named Coromoto, which comes from a Marian title.
- 15 babies were named Inti, which is the Quechua word for “sun.”
- 9 babies were named Amaru, which is the Quechua word for “snake.”
- This was Tupac Shakur‘s middle name.
- 8 babies were named Borja, which comes from the name of Spanish saint Francisco de Borja.
- 7 babies were named Irupé, which is the Guaraní word for the large South American water-lily Victoria cruziana.
- 5 babies were named Yamandú, which was the name of a historical Guarani chief.
- 4 babies were named Chiquinquira, which comes from a Marian title.
- Two others were named Aurora de la Chiquinquira and Leomarys de la Chiquinquira.
- 4 babies were named Itanú, which is a Charrúa name said to mean “heartbeat of stone.”
- 3 babies were named Guidaí, which is the Charrúa word for “moon.”
- 3 babies were named Tacuabé, which was the name of a historical Charrúa man.
- Following the Massacre of Salsipuedes in 1831, Tacuabé and several other Charrúa prisoners were taken to France to be put on exhibition.
- 2 babies were named Amancay, which is a Quechua word that refers to a lily-like South American flower.
- 2 babies were named Amapola, which means “poppy” in Spanish.
- 2 babies were named Atahualpa, which was the name of the last emperor of the Inca.
- 2 babies were named Everton, which may refer to Everton F.C.
- 2 babies were named Leunam, which is Manuel spelled backwards.
- 2 babies were named Pérola, which means “pearl” in Portuguese.
- 2 babies were named Uruguay.
And, because Uruguay releases all of its baby name data, we can also check out the unique names at the bottom of the list. Here’s a selection Uruguay’s single-use baby names of 2022:
Aluminé, Balquidia, Cubillas, Danubio, Elquin, Francival, Gigiola, Haaland, Ivonilton, Juysver, Kaique, Liviesti, Magaiver, Namastée, Oscarina, Patria, Quetzal, Riccieri, Silvilex, Tarantino, Urania, Valuzia, Winifer, Xaviera, Yitnelly, Zapicán
Some possible explanations/associations:
- Aluminé – a town in Argentina
- Cubillas – Peruvian soccer player Teófilo Cubillas
- Dabubio – Uruguayan football club Danubio
- Haaland – Norwegian soccer player Erling Haaland
- This one debuted in the U.S. data in 2021.
- Magaiver – TV character MacGyver
- Riccieri – a denim brand based in Brazil
- Tarantino – American film director Quentin Tarantino
- Zapicán – a village in Uruguay
Sources:
- “En Uruguay se registró un Tsunami y llegó el Messias: mirá cuántas veces se inscribió tu nombre en 2022.” El Observador 17 Jan. 2023.
- Behind the Name
- Wiktionary
Image: Adapted from Flag of Uruguay (public domain)
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