Martina and Jan top baby names as births in Catalonia fall by 3.9% in 2023

A total of 54,182 babies were born in Catalonia in 2023, according to provisional data from the Catalan Statistics Institute (Idescat). 

It is the lowest figure since 1995 and represents a fall of 3.9% on 2022, continuing a 15-year downward trend in the birth rate, from the peak of 89,024 births in 2008, which came just before the financial crash and followed more than a decade of the birth rate increasing. 

The number of women of childbearing age (15-49) remained relatively steady at 1.78 million, an increase of 1.8% compared to the previous year. The average age of mothers giving birth remained the same, 32.6, while the average age of first-time mothers was 31.7. 

Babies born to foreign mothers exceeded one-third of the total (34.6%) for the first time. 

Martina and Jan: most popular names 

Martina and Jan were the most popular names for newborn baby girls and boys respectively in 2023.  

There were 393 babies named Jan, ahead of Biel (387), Pol (376), Nil (374), and Leo (372). Leo was top in 2022 after dethroning Marc, which led the rankings since 1997. 

For girls, Martina (405) regained the top spot for the first time since 2016. Júlia (390), Mia (339), Emma (327) and Lucía (324) were the other most popular girls' names.