There will no longer be Juans, Josés and donkeys in every house

BarcelonaFor years, the names Juan and José were given to many babies born in Catalonia, hence the popular saying "There are Juans, Josés, and donkeys in every house." But in recent decades, this trend has reversed. In the case of Josep, after a boom in the 1950s and 60s, when more than 15,000 babies were given this name, its popularity plummeted from the 2000s onward: from 2010 to 2019, only 602 babies were named Josep, and between 2010 and 2019, only 109.

Yes ok José It's no longer a popular name among babies born today; the Castilian form, José, is the third most frequent name in Catalonia, after Antonio and Maria/María, while Josep ranks 25th. Currently, there are 35,314 Joseps and 79,430 Josés in Catalonia, according to 2024 data from Idescat. "At the time when most Joseps were born, they had to be registered as José, and the Joseps we see are those who adopted the Catalanized version of the name. Of the seven we consider, both [José and Josep] might not have been in every household, but they were in one out of every ten, and that's a lot," says Francesc Calafell, a researcher at the Institute of Evolutionary Biology CSIC-UPF.

Regarding the areas of Catalonia where the name Josep is most common, the northern and western regions predominate, especially where the peasantry was once the economic engine of the area. The Lluçanès region has the highest number per capita, specifically 65.35 per thousand, followed by Solsonès, with 40.83 per thousand. In third place is Pallars Sobirà (38.29 per thousand). "It's a name more common in inland Catalonia, in the Pyrenees. We also find it in the Valencian Community and the Balearic Islands. What's surprising is that it's a modern name, since before the 17th century it was practically nonexistent," explains Calafell.

The average age of people named Josep is 55.7 years. In Spain, Lugo, Ourense, and Córdoba are the provinces with the highest number of people named José, and their average age is 62.9 years, according to INE data.

In contrast, in the metropolitan area of ​​Barcelona and the Tarragona coast, the name Josep is now almost uncommon. However, the decline of this name has been offset by the rise of the diminutive of José: Pep. Until the 2000s, the name Pep was practically nonexistent. From 2010 to 2019, however, 434 babies were named Pep, and between 2020 and 2023, more Peps than Joseps were born—144, to be exact. "We have a small resurgence of Pep, but even so, it doesn't really mean much" (862). Calafell. Furthermore, it fits into the trend of giving short, one-syllable names. The average age of a Pep is 15.3 years.

"As in the case of Antoni“The name Josep has followed the general trend: the more common a name is, the more it begins to be perceived as too common and falls out of favor,” Calafell asserts. This researcher explains that one of the criteria parents use when choosing a name for their child is that there won't be ten others like him in the class, and “they choose the name as a way to be individual. And the fact that it's associated with people of a certain age doesn't make it particularly popular,” says Calafell, who adds that it's a name that enjoyed a resurgence with Josep Maria. There are 14,143 of them. “If Josep is a grandfather's name, Josep Maria is an uncle's name,” he concludes.