Baby Name: Sebastian

Last year, the Baltic state of Estonia (which shares land borders with Latvia and Russia) welcomed 9,690 babies — 4,757 girls and 4,933 boys.

What were the most popular names among these babies? Sofia and Mark.

Here are the county’s top 10 girl names and top 10 boy names of 2024:

Girl names, 2024

1. Sofia, 79 baby girls
2. Mia, 62
3. Emilia, 54 (tie)
4. Olivia, 54 (tie)
5. Saara, 49
6. Emma, 46
7. Eva, 45
8. Arabella, 43 (tie)
9. Nora, 43 (tie)
10. Lenna, 37

Boy names, 2024

1. Mark, 75 baby boys
2. Hugo, 57 (tie)
3. Oliver, 57 (tie)
4. Sebastian, 51
5. Robin, 46
6. Aron, 44
7. Leon, 42
8. Oskar, 40
9. David, 39
10. Lukas, 35

The news release noted that Aaron is nearly as popular as Aron (#6), and that, if both spellings of the name had been counted together, Aron/Aaron “would have been the most popular boy’s name for the past seven years.”

It also mentioned that Nora’s “success story began with a sharp increase in popularity in 2017.” I wish it had revealed why Nora became trendy all of a sudden in 2017, though. (Does anyone out there have a theory?)

One year earlier, Estonia welcomed a total of 10,949 babies — 5,386 girls and 5,563 boys. Here are the country’s top 10 girl names and top 10 boy names of 2023:

Girl names, 2023

1. Sofia, 112 baby girls
2. Mia, 58
3. Olivia, 54
4. Emily, 52
5. Emma, 51 (3-way tie)
6. Eva, 51 (3-way tie)
7. Lenna, 51 (3-way tie)
8. Emilia, 50
9. Amelia, 49
10. Saara, 43

Boy names, 2023

1. Mark, 90 baby boys
2. Hugo, 62
3. Miron, 54 (tie)
4. Robin, 54 (tie)
5. Oliver, 53
6. Rasmus, 50
7. Sebastian, 49
8. David, 45
9. Jasper, 44
10. Daniel, 43

In 2022, the top names in Estonia were also Sofia and Mark. It 2021, they were Mia and Robin.

Sources (all from Eesti Statistika):

• Populaarsed eesnimed sünniaasta järgi
• Kõige populaarsem tüdrukunimi on juba 12. korda Sofia (Feb. 2025)
• Värskeim statistika: mullu sündis 10 949 beebit, poisse rohkem kui tüdrukuid (May 2024)
• RV106: Elussündinud soo järgi

Image: Adapted from Flag of Estonia (public domain)