Don’t tell us your horoscope, if you were born in Barcelona, just with your year of birth, we will surely find out your name or how many Marias were in your class.
Because no, these are not your imagination, there are many Marias and there are many Marias in Barcelona. This can be seen in the list of the most popular names for decades, since 1930, which has been published by the Ajuntament de Barcelona. Since then, and until 2020, a total of 16,230 Barcelona women have been so named.
In the case of male names, although now not as common among newborns, the winning name is Antonio, with a total of 15,314 during the same period. But this is no longer the case and although Maria is coming back into fashion in certain environments, this is not the case with Antonio.
The most popular names today are Sofia, Emma and Olivia (for girls born in Barcelona) and Pol Mateo and Leo (for boys). And Leo, the third most popular boy’s name in Barcelona is the most popular name in Catalonia unseating Marc.
Nowadays, however, if you are introduced to a boy, there is a good chance that his name will be Marc, Alex or Pol, as these have been the three most chosen names for boys in recent decades.
However, there is not such a marked trend in the case of female names: we can see that Laias and Martinas have risen, and Martas and Marias have continued to be popular names, although not always on the podium.
These are the three most popular names of each decade:
1930-1939
-Maria
-Carmen
-Josefa
-Antonio
-Manuel
-Francisco
1940-1949
-Carmen
-Mª Carmen
-Maria
-José
-Antonio
-Manuel
1950-1959
-Montserrat
-Mª Carmen
-Carmen
-Antonio
-José
-Manuel
1960-1969
-Montserrat
-Nuria
-Mª Carmen
-Jordi
-Antonio
-Jorge
1970-1979
-Marta
-Cristina
-Mònica
-David
-Jordi
-Daniel
1980-1989
-Laura
-Marta
-Cristina
-David
-Daniel
-Jordi
1990-1999
-Laura
-Maria
-Marta
-Marc
-David
-Daniel
2000-2009
-Maria
-Paula
-Laia
-Marc
-Alex
-Pol
2010-2019
-Júlia
-Martina
-Laia
-Marc
-Alex
-Pol
2020-2024
-Sofia
-Emma
-Olívia
-Pol
-Matthew
-Leo