For the fifth year in a row, Emma tops the list of the most popular names for girls. However, she must now share first place with last year's second most popular name Maja. Among the boys' names, Lucas takes over first place from Oscar. Agnes and Wilma were new to this year's top ten list for girls' names, but no new boys' names made it to the list.
Nearly four percent of all baby girls were given the names Emma and Maja, or 1 019 girls for each name. Agnes climbs from 26th place to third place in 2006. Another fast mover is Wilma at seventh place compared to twelfth place the year before. Completely new on this year's top 100 list are Angelina, Inez, Siri, Lilly and Ingrid. Hedda, Malin, Mikaela, Minna and Smilla disappeared from the list.
Lucas topped the list among boys' names; the name was given to 1 173 boys in 2006, corresponding to just over two percent of all given names to boys. As a result, Oscar and William are now a notch down at second and third place. Only two new names entered the top 100 list for boys, Vidar and Svante, while Herman and Joakim disappear.
New parents use their imagination
In 2006, 52 488 girls were given names. If we include variations in spelling, some 5 150 different names have been used. An entire 16 percent of all girls received one of the ten most common names, while 3 300 had unique names, if only in spelling sometimes.
Among boys, about 4 600 names were given to 55 254 boys. Nearly every fifth boy received one of the ten most popular names, while 3 050 boys received a unique name.
Agnes and Jack quickly gain popularity
For girls, Agnes rose the sharpest in 2006, followed by Freja and Lilly. The last-mentioned name is also new on the top 100 list. Mikaela, one of the fastest rising names in 2005 is now gone from the list. Names quickly losing popularity are Nathalie, Jasmine, Josefin and Louise.
Among boys' names, Jack rose the most, followed by Måns and Vincent, while Andreas, Johannes and Dennis fell the most. Statistics also show that Marcus, the name that dropped the quickest in 2005, had a considerable increase in 2006.