Each year, the Sociale Verzekeringsbank (SVB) publishes the most popular names given to newborns. The SVB provides the children’s allowance benefit.

This year, the SVB has decided to only include those names which are given 25 times or more. This is due to privacy concerns for those with more unique names. In 2016, the most popular name for boys was Daan, whilst the most popular name for girls was Anna. In 2017, 1.7 million babies were born, 82.568 girls and 86.718 boys.

The most popular names in the Netherlands

In 2017, the most popular name for a girl was Emma, which was given to 755 newborns. Finishing shortly after Emma is Tess, which was given to 734 baby girls. The third most popular baby girl name was Sophie.

Noah was the most popular name for boys, given to 635 babies. The second most popular boy’s name was Sem. This name was given to 631 baby boys, only four fewer than were named Noah. Following on from Sem was Lucas. The name Lucas was given to 629 children.

In the most popular baby names list, the SVB only counts unique spellings of names, and thus does not count variations of the same name as one instance. For example, Luuk and Luc would be counted as two different names. If the variations of Luuk counted as one instance it would have been the most popular boy’s name in 2017. Luuk, Luc and Luke were given as a first name to 756 baby boys.

The shortest name, given to both boys and girls, in 2017 was Bo. Interestingly, Bo was more popular amongst girls, as it was given to 224 girls, but only 44 boys.

Regional popularity

The popularity of certain names was different depending on the province. In Groningen, Emma was indeed the most popular girl’s name, but Daan was the most popular boy’s name. In Utrecht, Finn and Sophie were the most popular baby names. In Noord-Holland, Noah and Emma stayed at the top of the list, but in Flevoland, Liam and Julia took the leading positions.

Quite remarkably, the most popular names in the province of Zeeland are nowhere near the top of the most popular baby names list in 2017. In Zeeland, the most popular girl’s name was Johanna, which ended up placing 99th on the list. The most popular boy’s name was Jan, which took its place on the list at number 27.

Top 10 girl’s names

Here are the top 10 baby names for girls in 2017.

1. Emma
2. Tess
3. Sophie
4. Julia
5. Anna
6. Mila
7. Sara
8. Eva
9. Zoë
10. Evi

Top 10 boy’s names

Here are the top 10 baby names for boys in 2017.

1. Noah
2. Sem
3. Lucas
4. Finn
5. Daan
6. Levi
7. Milan
8. Bram
9. Luuk
10. Jesse