Baby Name: Santiago

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:

1. María, 1,170 babies
2. Juan, 1,138
3. Maria, 1,108
4. Isabella, 885
5. Benjamín, 780
6. Emma, 766
7. Mateo, 728
8. Valentina, 660
9. Catalina, 659
10. Luis, 648
11. Alejandro, 647
12. Martina, 640
13. Felipe, 637
14. Carlos, 589
15. Valentín, 568
16. Ezequiel, 562
17. Emilia, 559
18. Manuel, 556
19. Daniel, 555
20. Lorenzo, 550
21. Julieta, 546
22. José, 535
23. Gabriel, 518
24. Jose, 517
25. Nicolás, 491
26. Sofía, 486
27. Ignacio, 455
28. Alberto, 452
29. Santiago, 450
30. Francisco, 442
31. David, 438
32. Agustín, 435
33. Olivia, 429
34. Josefina, 422
35. Valentino, 416
36. Antonio, 410 (tie)
37. Lucas, 410 (tie)
38. Bautista, 405
39. Delfina, 396
40. Lautaro, 389
41. Benjamin, 384
42. Eduardo, 383
43. Belén, 378
44. Thiago, 372
45. Gael, 371
46. Santino, 370
47. Victoria, 367
48. Javier, 365
49. Agustina, 363
50. Jorge, 362
51. Emiliano, 358
52. Dante, 357
53. Alexander, 351
54. Tomás, 342
55. Paulina, 335
56. Miguel, 334
57. Rafael, 329
58. Ana, 324
59. Joaquín, 320
60. Samuel, 315
61. Pablo, 313
62. Sofia, 309
63. Pilar, 308
64. Diego, 307
65. Zoe, 306
66. Alfonsina, 300
67. Renata, 297
68. Clara, 278 (3-way tie)
69. Liam, 278 (3-way tie)
70. Sebastián, 278 (3-way tie)
71. Milagros, 276
72. Francesca, 271
73. Fernando, 268
74. Emily, 265
75. Enrique, 262
76. Facundo, 261
77. Federico, 260 (tie)
78. Pedro, 260 (tie)
79. Angel, 258
80. Bastian, 253
81. Bruno, 252 (tie)
82. Martín, 252 (tie)
83. Alejandra, 251
84. Carolina, 249 (tie)
85. Noah, 249 (tie)
86. Guadalupe, 246
87. Nicolas, 243
88. Vicente, 240
89. Enzo, 235
90. Salvador, 228
91. Sebastian, 227
92. Juana, 225
93. Valentin, 222
94. Guillermo, 220
95. Alma, 218 (tie)
96. Emanuel, 218 (tie)
97. Nahuel, 215
98. Camila, 211 (tie)
99. Elena, 211 (tie)
100. Andres, 210
101. Andrés, 209 (3-way tie)
102. Benicio, 209 (3-way tie)
103. Paz, 209 (3-way tie)
104. Gabriela, 208
105. Beatriz, 207
106. Ciro, 206 (tie)
107. Martin, 206 (tie)
108. Maite, 203
109. Andrea, 202
110. Elizabeth, 200 (tie)
111. Laura, 200 (tie)
112. Isabel, 199 (tie)
113. Mia, 199 (tie)
114. Luciano, 198
115. Ismael, 197
116. Jazmín, 195
117. Camilo, 194
118. Marcelo, 192
119. Franco, 190
120. Agustin, 189
121. Alfonso, 187
122. Aitana, 186 (tie)
123. Bianca, 186 (tie)
124. Ramiro, 185
125. Gustavo, 184
126. Cataleya, 183
127. Roberto, 178
128. Ariel, 176
129. Lucía, 174
130. Micaela, 173 (tie)
131. 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)