Baby Name: Khadicha

The landlocked Central Asian nation of Uzbekistan is fully surrounded by five other -stans: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, and Turkmenistan.

In 2023, Uzbekistan welcomed 968,140 babies — 466,563 girls and 501,577 boys.

What were the most popular names among all these babies? Soliha and Muhammadali, for the fifth year in a row.

Here are Uzbekistan’s top 10 girl names and top 10 boy names of 2023:

Girl names

1. Soliha, 24,365 baby girls
2. Muslima, 15,918
3. Yasmina, 19,911
4. Hadicha, 10,759
   • The Cyrillic letter Kha can be transliterated several different ways, so Hadicha can also be spelled Khadicha and Xadicha.
5. Imona, 10,310
6. Shukrona, 9,330
7. Sumayya, 9,279
8. Ifora, 7,586
9. Sa’diya, 6,639
10. Mubina, 6,585

Boy names

1. Muhammadali, 27,431 baby boys
2. Mustafo, 22,880
3. Abdulloh, 18,116
4. Muhammad, 17,025
5. Muhammadyusuf, 13,774
6. Muhammadmin, 12,450
7. Nurmuhammed, 9,017
8. Muhammadjon, 8,843
9. Imronbek, 8,591
10. Muhammadziyo, 8,135

In 2018, Uzbekistan’s top baby names were Soliha and Mustafo. The year before that, the No. 1 names were Madina and Azizbek.

Sources:

• “Most popular names in Uzbekistan announced.” Kun.uz 5 Jan. 2024.
• “Governmental services agency unveils most popular baby names in 2023.” Tashkent Times 5 Jan. 2024.
• Uzbekistan – Wikipedia
• Behind the Name

Image: Adapted from Flag of Uzbekistan (public domain)