Names, 2001

Few changes for boys names

The stability of the boys' names is dramatic. The names Kristian/Christian and Martin follow Markus as in 2000 and in 1999. Not until Marius on 10th we find a significant jump (up 4). Further down the list, Emil is on his way up. The names from Oslo's west side Oskar, Jakob, Philip and Herman climb steadily.

Last years largest drop-downs were Simen and Kim.

There is an alphabetical list of 400 names of each gender on the web. It shows the names popularity for the last ten years. Although the birth rates are somewhat varying - especially low in 2001 - the list gives a good view of almost all actual names. Here we can look for the top names of the future. Some names to take notice of are August (22% are born in August), Gabriel, Isak/Isac (places 44th, twice as many as four years ago), Oliver (137 children in 2001 versus 21 in 1992) and Kasper, Jesper and Jonathan.

More changes for girls names

Julie is back in the top being the most used girls name in 2001, after having been ranked 9th in 1998. Ida is in the second place for the third year in a row, and has been among the three most used since 1985. Sara moves steadily upwards and is at 3rd place. Emilie, last years top name, has dropped to the 5th. Maria is up from 12th to 6th place. The climbing name of the year must be Hedda. Before 1960 it was only known from literature. It slowly started growing in 1985, speeded up and jumped 14 places to 20th in 2001.

Victoria and Ingrid lost popularity last year.

Looking down the list, we find Aurora, Ronja and Selma. These are names in a good «flow». Will they reach the top list in some years?

Do famous people influence our name selections?

In some cases, famous persons with unusual names affect the curves of those names. For example, when Vegard Ulvang and Sonja Henie became famous, many children were named as them. There are no similar effects of Bjørn Dæhlie or Crown Princess Mette-Marit.

The reason for this might be that when a famous person has a potentially popular name, he will make parents aware of the name. Hedda, which was known from Ibsen only, gained a lot of popularity when we got an alpinist with that name. It's hard to tell if Tuva's progress (up 13 to 37th) is caused by the popular TV-series "Vi på Langedrag". It is a trendy name, and the growth of this name the fall 2001is remarkable big.

It also looks like famous persons' children's names influence our choices. The classical examples are connected to the royal family with the names Ragnhild, Astrid and Harald in the 1930's. The name Marius was on the way down, but is now back. Up 4 to 10th place.

More first names

24,4 per cent of the girls and 22,4 per cent of the boys have two or more first names. Additionally 1,5 percent have a hyphen. 45 percent have middle names.

Most used double names are Ole Kristian and Ole Martin. 506 boys have André as second first name. Among the girls, Ida Marie (36) and Emma Sofie (23) are the most used. 631 girls have Marie as 2nd first name, 365 Sofie.

Surnames

There is also a list of surnames on the web. The 13 most used end with -sen. They have all lost popularity the last years. The figures for the three most used surnames over some years illustrate the development:

Most common first names

is a statistic of the 28.457 boys and 27.198 girls who got names in 2001. Some of them were born fall 2000. The list might therefore change when all 2001 names are reported.