The most popular baby names in Galicia for boys and girls (and their meaning)

The INE (National Institute of Statistics) has announced the names that parents have chosen the most for their newborn babies in Spain in 2021. And in addition, it has specified, by autonomous communities, which names have been the most chosen.

Thus, we continue with our list of the most popular baby names according to the autonomous community; this time, we talk about the most popular names in Galicia for boys and girls, also detailing their meaning.

If you like Galician names and are considering giving your baby one, you can consult our lists of 101 Galician names for boys and 101 Galician names for girls.

Most popular boy names in Galicia

The boy names most chosen by Galician parents for their babies are, in order of popularity:

1. Mateo : means “gift of God”. It is also popular in the Catalan form, Mateu: Catalan form of Mateo.
2. Martin : comes from the Latin form Martis, which means “Mars” or “consecrated to the god Mars”.
3. Hugo : of Germanic origin, it means “intelligent”, “lucid”, “insightful”.
4. Leo – The most popular boy’s name of the last five years. It derives from Latin and is a variant of Leon, it symbolizes the fierceness of this animal and also power and justice.
5. Lucas : of uncertain origin, it seems to come from the Hebrew and would mean “hurricane”, or from Latin, and would be translated as “light”.
6. Enzo – is an Italian given name, meaning “the lord of his home or his country”.
7. Manuel : of Hebrew origin, it means “God is with us”.
8. Roi : short form in Galicia for Rodrigo. Of Germanic origin, it means ‘of great glory’.
9. Gael : of Breton origin, and means “generosity, generous sir”.
10. Alex : variant of Alexander, means “protector or victor of men”.

Mateo, the name most given to Galician babies

If we compare these names with the most popular names for boys at the national level, in general we see that the majority coincide. Although Mateo’s name does not coincide with the most popular in national statistics – it is the third nationally.

On the contrary, the names of Roi, Gael and Alex , who occupy the eighth, ninth and tenth of the most placed names for babies in Galicia, are not in the national top 10. Roi does not appear, and the others are ranked 30th and 19th respectively.

Most popular girl names in Galicia

The names for girls most chosen by parents for their babies are, in order of popularity:

1. Sofia : of Greek origin and its meaning is “wisdom” or “the one who possesses wisdom”.
2. Noa : It is used for both boys and girls. It is of Hebrew origin, it means “delight”.
3. Martina : feminine form of Martín, of Latin origin and meaning “consecrated or related to the god Mars”.
4. Lara : has two possible etymologies. One indicates that it is a Russian diminutive of the name Larisa. The other indicates that it comes from Roman mythology and was the name of one of the water nymphs.
5. Valeria : of Latin origin and its meaning is “healthy and courageous”.
6. Daniela : of Hebrew origin, whose meaning is “She who God is her judge” or “Justice of God”.
7. Olivia : of Latin origin, it means “the one who brings peace”.
8. Sara : of Hebrew origin and its meaning is “Princess”, “lady”, “sovereign”.
9. Mine : its origin is Hebrew ; sometimes we find it with a tilde and others without it. Little do they know, but it is the diminutive of María, Amelia, Emilia or Amalia. It means “the chosen one” or “the one loved by God”.
10. Lucía : of Latin origin “lux”, its meaning is “She who carries the light” or “She who is born of light”, in reference to girls who are born at dawn.

As we can see, the name given most often to newborns in Galicia is Sofía , followed by Noa and Martina . The first and third are also in the top of the most chosen nationally, but Noa is in 19th place.

Although most of the names appear as a trend in the rest of Spain, there are some like Lara, Olivia, Sara and Mia that are not in the ranking of the 10 most chosen names at the national level.