Baby Name: Ester

Sweden tricked us, you guys.

Last year, Statistics Sweden ominously announced that it would “stop producing name statistics.”

It neglected to mention that the country’s baby name data would continue coming out every year — that the names were simply going to be handled by a different government agency (the Swedish Tax Agency) going forward.

I wanted to be annoyed about this deception, but my annoyance evaporated after I learned that the Swedish Tax Agency had released all of the country’s 2023 baby name data — meaning that we could finally check out Sweden’s rare and unique names (yay!).

So, without further ado, let’s take a look…

Sweden welcomed 100,051 babies in 2023. What were the most popular names among these babies? Vera and Noah.

Here are Sweden’s top 50 girl names and top 50 boy names of 2023:

Girl names

1. Vera, 608 baby girls
2. Elsa, 603
3. Alma, 597
4. Selma, 538
5. Alice, 512
6. Signe, 494
7. Ellie, 490
8. Olivia, 488
9. Astrid, 470
10. Ella, 467
11. Stella, 447
12. Maja, 442
13. Freja, 434
14. Saga, 426
15. Alva, 415
16. Agnes, 392
17. Ebba, 381
18. Leah, 375
19. Alba, 365
20. Hedda, 362
21. Iris, 344
22. Wilma, 341
23. Ines, 339
24. Alicia, 335
25. Mila, 332
26. Luna, 304
27. Lilly, 292
28. Sigrid, 288
29. Elvira, 286
30. Leia, 280
31. Juni, 274
32. Julia, 258
33. Hilma, 256
34. Clara, 253
35. Majken, 242 (tie)
36. Molly, 242 (tie)
37. Ellen, 241
38. Ester, 238 (tie)
39. Lykke, 238 (tie)
40. Lily, 236
41. Nora, 232
42. Ingrid, 226
43. Nova, 223
44. Edith, 205
45. Livia, 204
46. Sally, 203
47. Lea, 198
48. Tyra, 194
49. Liv, 193
50. Esther, 192

Boy names

1. Noah, 687 baby boys
2. Hugo, 652
3. William, 565
4. Liam, 558
5. Nils, 536
6. Oliver, 517
7. Elias, 516
8. Adam, 507
9. August, 506
10. Sam, 504
11. Alfred, 485
12. Otto, 479
13. Leo, 463
14. Leon, 415
15. Frans, 414
16. Charlie, 388
17. Olle, 372
18. Theo, 366
19. Harry, 362
20. Arvid, 351
21. Ludvig, 350
22. Malte, 345
23. Ebbe, 338 (tie)
24. Lucas, 338 (tie)
25. Tage, 330
26. Elliot, 327
27. Henry, 326
28. Adrian, 322
29. Gabriel, 319
30. Elton, 318
31. Ted, 317
32. Walter, 314
33. Vincent, 296
34. Alexander, 294 (tie)
35. Oscar, 294 (tie)
36. Valter, 293
37. Benjamin, 282
38. Noel, 274 (tie)
39. Theodor, 274 (tie)
40. Jack, 268 (tie)
41. Viggo, 268 (tie)
42. Axel, 264
43. Albin, 256
44. Melker, 251
45. Levi, 240
46. Isak, 236
47. Dante, 233
48. Lukas, 230
49. Matteo, 226
50. Hjalmar, 225

The top names of 2022, Astrid and William, dropped to ninth place and third place, respectively.

The boys’ top 100 included Ture (53rd), Vidar (55th), Loke (71st), and Bill (97th).

The girls’ top 100 included Tuva (66th), Stina (75th), Lo (78th), and Eira (81st).

Farther down on the girls’ list I spotted Madicken, which was given to 15 babies last year. Swedish author Astrid Lindgren featured a fictional 7-year-old girl named Margareta “Madicken” Engström in several of her children’s books. (Lindgren had named the character after a childhood friend, Anne-Marie, whose nickname was Madicken.)

And what about the names at the other end of the spectrum? Here’s a sampling of the more than 8,000 names that were bestowed just once in Sweden last year:

Some definitions/associations for a few of the above:

• Glittra means “to glitter” in Swedish.
• Källa means “source” in Swedish. (Originally it referred to a source of water, such as a spring or a well.)
• Lavendel means “lavender” in Swedish (and several other languages).
• Lillebror means “little brother” in Swedish.
• Mjalton refers to Mjältön, an island in Sweden.
• Skjómi, an Old Norse word meaning “a flickering light,” was used metaphorically in Skaldic poetry to refer to a drawn sword.
• Virvla means “to whirl” in Swedish. (The related noun virvel means “vortex.”)

Sources: Elsa och Noah populäraste namnen hos nyfödda – Skatteverket, Namn på nyfödda – Skatteverket, Population statistics – Statistics Sweden, Madicken (Mardie) – Astrid Lindgren, Wiktionary, skjómi – Lexicon Poeticum, skjómi – Old Norse Dictionary

Image: Adapted from Flag of Sweden (public domain)