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REVEALED: These are Italy’s most popular baby names

The latest list of Italy's most popular baby names has been published - and as with so many things in this country, there are regional differences.

Published: 21 December 2022 12:57 CET
Updated: 27 December 2022 09:37 CET
REVEALED: These are Italy's most popular baby names
Italy's most popular baby names remain largely unchanged in 2021 from previous years. Photo by Kevin Keith on Unsplash

Sofia and Leonardo remained the most popular names given to new babies in Italy last year, according to Italian statistics agency Istat.

Istat on Monday released the latest list of names most frequently given to newborns in the country as part of its annual report on births, based on data from 2021.

Sofia has been the most popular girls’ name in Italy since 2010, Istat said. In 2021, a total of 5,578 babies were given the name, or just under three percent of baby girls.

Aurora was the second most popular choice, up from third place last year, followed by Giulia and Ginevra.

For boys, Leonardo has also been top of the list since 2018, and was the favourite by a long way in 2021, when the name was given to a total of 8,448 baby boys, or some four percent of boys born in the country.

The second most popular choice for boys was Alessandro, followed by Tommaso and Francesco, all of which were given to just under 5,000 babies each.

READ ALSO: Will my children get an Italian passport if born in Italy?

Classic boys’ names tend to dominate such lists in Italy, where many families traditionally name baby boys after their paternal grandfather or another male relative.

Girls are also often named after their paternal grandmothers, but as the list of most popular names shows, more modern or international-sounding girls’ names have also become popular.

Here are the top ten Italian babies’ names:

Boys: 

1 Leonardo 

2 Alessandro 

3 Tommaso 

4 Francesco 

5 Lorenzo 

6 Edoardo 

7 Mattia 

8 Riccardo

9 Gabriele 

10 Andrea 

Girls: 

1 Sofia 

2 Aurora

3 Giulia

4 Ginevra

5 Beatrice

6 Alice

7 Vittoria

8 Emma

9 Ludovica

10 Matilde

Altogether, Istat has recorded more than 26,000 different names for boys and 25,000 for girls since 1999, including composite names (such as Mariagrazia or Gianluca).

But the top 30 this year accounted for some 44 percent of all names given to boys and almost 38 percent for girls.

The data also revealed a north-south divide in name choices. Sofia was the most popular girls’ name in all the northern and central-northern regions, while parents in most of the south and centre went for Giulia or Aurora instead.

For boys, Leonardo was by far the favourite choice across all regions in the north and centre except for the autonomous province of Bolzano, where Noah took the top spot.

The southern regions of Puglia and Calabria preferred Francesco, while Antonio was the most popular in Campania and Basilicata, despite not being in the top ten overall.

The 20 most popular boys’ and girls’ names in Italy in 2021. Source: Istat

Among non-Italian parents living in Italy, the most popular names differed, although included many typically Italian names such as Leonardo, Matteo, Luca, and Alessandro, according to data which looked at the country’s four biggest international populations.

Leonardo and Sofia were especially popular with Romanian-born parents, as well as David, Gabriel, Sofia Maria, Eva Maria, Noemi or Melissa.

Albanian parents were more likely to choose names like Aron, Liam, Enea, or Noel for boys, or Emily, Aurora, Ambra, Chloe and Emma for girls.

READ ALSO: How much does it cost to raise a child in Italy?

The majority of Moroccan boys meanwhile were named Adam, Amir, Rayan, Youssef and Jad, while the top girls’ names were Amira, Jannat, Nour, Sara and Lina. 

Parents from Bangladesh favoured Abdullah, Anas, Arham and Ayan for boys, and Fatima, Sara, Ayesha, Maryam and Raisa for girls.

See the full list of baby names on the Istat website, which allows you to search the database to find out how many babies in Italy were given any name each year since 1999.

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OPINION

Are Italy’s many dialects dying out – or just evolving?

Italy's numerous local dialects are a source of pride, but the way they're used is changing dramatically, writes Silvia Marchetti.

Published: 23 May 2024 15:07 CEST
Are Italy's many dialects dying out - or just evolving?

The multitude of dialects in Italy shows the diversity and richness of our linguistic culture and traditions. However, in recent years there’s been a huge change in their use. 

It seems the use of dialect is dying out in many households. Figures from Istat, the Italian statistics bureau, have shown for years now that only around 14 percent of Italians still speak in dialect at home. 

IN MAPS: A brief introduction to Italy’s many local dialects

The boundaries between Italian and dialects are blurring. Unlike in the past, when they were a symbol of social status and people who spoke in dialect were looked down upon, now a new ‘middle language’ – neither Italian nor dialect – is emerging.

The upper-middle classes in particular, and professionals like doctors and lawyers, are dropping their accents to blend in and rise up the ladder. 

However, while dialects may be waning today, local authorities and private associations are pushing their use and recovery as a symbol of territorial identity and cultural belonging.

Dialect courses are booming all over Italy, with many regions allocating funds to saving local dialects. In Lazio, Emilia Romagna, and Friuli Venezia Giulia, just to name a few, resources are earmarked annually by regional councils for dialect lessons, while Sicily wants siculo to be taught in schools.

At local level, dozens of private cultural clubs are organizing evening classes and events in dialect, while famous folk singers now proudly sing in dialect, adapting iconic foreign hits.

In a village in deepest Puglia recently from an open window I heard a bizarre take on The Beatles’ Yesterday, which made me laugh out loud, written by Lecce-based musician Andrea Baccassino who has launched a dialect radio station. The deeper south you go, it seems the more locals try to preserve their native tongue. 

READ ALSO: Why are Italy’s disappearing dialects so important?

Despite the decline, many stereotypes survive around dialects. According to a recent survey some are still looked down upon – mostly the deep southern ones, tied to past waves of migration from Naples and Palermo to the more prosperous north.

But that is not the reason why they seem to be dying out. Rather, what is happening today is the result of a long-term trend which sees an inverse immigration occurring across Italy: southerners who move to the north to work are coming back home to the south, but they now speak Milanese or Piemontese, while northerners who went to the south, though they are fewer, have forgotten their original dialect. 

Once in Sicily I met an extended Sicilian family, half of it spoke Sicilian, the other half spoke Piedmontese, for their parents had migrated to Turin to work in the car industry in the 1950s.

Recently, during a trip to Bologna, I discovered that most staff employed in public offices and hospitals came from the south and spoke a hybrid between their own dialect and Bolognese. I recall one Sicilian nurse in particular speaking a funny Torinese-Siculo-Romano, as her husband came from Rome. 

The truth is, nobody nowadays in Italy is 100 percent from Naples, or 100 percent from Rome or Turin. People from the south have married people from the north and this has led to a picturesque combination of dialects, even if many people still nowadays tend to hide their origins out of habit. 

I think in future the boundaries between dialects will become even more blurred, and every Italian will be speaking a mix of every single known dialect, borrowing popular words here and there. Perhaps a word or two from Romanesco, and one from Siculo. That’s Italia. 

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