The French name that children like the most

BarcelonaIf there's a name that evokes Christmas, it's Noel: it's of French origin and comes from the word Christmas, what does it mean ChristmasHowever, it's not a popular name. There are only 6,745 men with this name in Spain, according to data from the National Institute of Statistics (INE), with an average age of 21.9 years. The highest concentration of men with this name is found in Galicia, Asturias, León, and Cáceres. In Catalonia, there are 1,202 men named Noel; a quarter of them were born between 2010 and 2019, and more than half were born after 2000. The most common regions are Garraf, the Lleida regions (Pallars Jussà, Pla d'Urgell, Urgell, and Segrià), and Segrià. "This points to the influence of Galician immigration, even though it's a name associated with relatively young people," says Francesc Calafell, a researcher at the Institute of Evolutionary Biology (CSIC-UPF). "In some sparsely populated areas, such as Pallars Jussà or Pla d'Urgell, with just two or three, the frequency skyrockets," he adds.

It is also a woman's name

Although it's a masculine name, there are also 47 women named Noel in Spain, nine of them in Catalonia, according to the INE (National Institute of Statistics) and Idescat (Catalan Institute of Statistics). And according to world atlases, there are many in the Philippines. During the Middle Ages, it was a very popular name and also gave rise to the surname Noel.

The researcher asserts that it's an "interesting" name, since "with slight spelling variations, you can find it in many languages, such as French, English, Spanish, Catalan..." In fact, it's a name that is pronounced practically the same in all languages and also fits with the current parents' preference for short names, such as Joel, Nile, Polo, or Jan, among many others. "It's an international name, pronounced the same in different languages, and it's a good crossover name for couples with members from different backgrounds," Calafell adds. We don't know, however, if the families who choose this name do so because of its Christmas meaning or because their child was born around Christmas. Other names that evoke this time of year are Navidad (Christmas), Noelia, Villancico (Christmas Carol), or Natalia. What is clear is that it's one of the most popular names for boys when Christmas arrives.