Humanverse

Names of Italy

10,814,463 births across 2,194 recorded names, 1999 to 2024.

The most common name in each part of the country

Italy publishes no full name list by part of the country – only, year by year, a ranking of the 10 most common boys' and girls' names in each of its 5 parts of the country. First place is below; the rest are on the pages of the names themselves. Being the top of a list whose tail was never published, these cannot be added up or turned into a share.

Part of the country BoysThat year GirlsThat year
Nord-ovest Leonardo 1,900 Sofia 1,236
Nord-est Leonardo 1,257 Sofia 867
Centro Leonardo 1,419 Ginevra 911
Sud Francesco 1,891 Giulia 1,224
Isole Leonardo 805 Aurora & Sofia 563

2024. The ranking has been published for 26 years, 1999 to 2024, and each of them ranks the 5 parts of the country separately. Counting every one of those lists: for boys, Francesco has come first 37 times, Leonardo has come first 34 times, Alessandro has come first 14 times; for girls, Sofia has come first 54 times, Giulia has come first 51 times, Aurora has come first 10 times. Places are as published, which means they are shared: where two names tie the source prints both, and so does this.

The most common name in each region

Italy publishes no full name list by region – only, year by year, a ranking of the 10 most common boys' and girls' names in each of its 21 regions. First place is below; the rest are on the pages of the names themselves. Being the top of a list whose tail was never published, these cannot be added up or turned into a share.

Region BoysThat year GirlsThat year
Piemonte Leonardo 497 Sofia 333
Valle d'Aosta/Vallée d'Aoste Edoardo & Tommaso 12 Beatrice 11
Lombardia Leonardo 1,210 Sofia 770
Provincia Autonoma di Bolzano Noah 69 Emma 53
Provincia Autonoma di Trento Leonardo 57 Sofia 42
Veneto Leonardo 537 Sofia 360
Friuli-Venezia Giulia Leonardo 122 Sofia 87
Liguria Leonardo 187 Sofia 128
Emilia-Romagna Leonardo 516 Sofia 350
Toscana Leonardo 413 Sofia 264
Umbria Edoardo 104 Sofia 67
Marche Edoardo 181 Vittoria 99
Lazio Leonardo 770 Ginevra 510
Abruzzo Leonardo 165 Aurora & Sofia 93
Molise Francesco 28 Aurora & Beatrice & Ginevra 20
Campania Antonio 977 Vittoria 629
Puglia Francesco 475 Sofia 320
Basilicata Antonio 72 Giulia 36
Calabria Francesco 344 Ginevra 172
Sicilia Leonardo 624 Aurora 462
Sardegna Leonardo 181 Sofia 105

2024. The ranking has been published for 26 years, 1999 to 2024, and each of them ranks the 21 regions separately. Counting every one of those lists: for boys, Francesco has come first 134 times, Leonardo has come first 127 times, Lorenzo has come first 59 times; for girls, Sofia has come first 219 times, Giulia has come first 166 times, Francesca has come first 41 times. Places are as published, which means they are shared: where two names tie the source prints both, and so does this.

Top of 2024

Girls

#NameThat year
1Sofia4,636
2Aurora4,265
3Ginevra4,153
4Vittoria3,893
5Giulia3,397
6Beatrice3,316
7Ludovica3,064
8Matilde2,959
9Alice2,901
10Emma2,539

Boys

#NameThat year
1Leonardo6,580
2Edoardo5,819
3Tommaso4,389
4Mattia4,233
5Alessandro4,201
6Francesco4,199
7Lorenzo3,851
8Gabriele3,805
9Riccardo3,505
10Andrea3,143

Common here, rare in America

Names Italy gives often that the US records barely hold.

Name In Italy In the US
Francesco Pio 14,263 not recorded
Diletta 12,633 not recorded
Maria Vittoria 7,437 not recorded
Giusy 5,973 not recorded
Costanza 5,873 not recorded
Francesca Pia 5,449 not recorded
Maria Francesca 5,261 not recorded
Maria Chiara 5,259 not recorded
Mariasole 4,656 not recorded
Ilary 4,624 not recorded
Annachiara 4,419 not recorded
Mirco 3,969 not recorded
Mariachiara 3,884 not recorded
Giulia Maria 3,778 not recorded
Francesco Maria 3,529 not recorded

US figures are Social Security births since 1880; the Italy figures cover 1999 onwards. The two are not the same measure and the columns are for comparison of scale, not subtraction.

Most given since 1999

Girls

#NameBirths
1Giulia196,243
2Sofia165,336
3Martina138,767
4Sara126,084
5Chiara125,818
6Aurora125,089
7Giorgia110,281
8Alessia105,520
9Alice99,141
10Francesca94,780
11Anna82,793
12Emma75,342
13Gaia73,100
14Beatrice71,732
15Elisa66,662
16Ginevra61,265
17Matilde60,824
18Giada60,432
19Greta59,758
20Elena58,225

Boys

#NameBirths
1Francesco217,368
2Alessandro193,505
3Andrea182,674
4Lorenzo175,026
5Matteo163,247
6Mattia146,517
7Leonardo142,506
8Gabriele137,883
9Riccardo121,267
10Davide110,632
11Luca106,709
12Tommaso104,212
13Giuseppe102,265
14Marco99,894
15Antonio93,996
16Federico93,695
17Simone92,581
18Edoardo83,988
19Giovanni83,380
20Alessio73,858

Source: ISTAT, Conta nomi. The forename as registered, so a child recorded as Maria Vittoria is counted under that and not under Maria: multi-word forenames are about an eighth of Italian births and almost all of the rare tail. Included here are the names given at least twenty times in at least one year, which covers between 81 and 88 per cent of births in any year, with no trend either way. ISTAT files names without accents.