Once upon a time, and not very long ago, María was every Spanish girls name, literally. However, as a girl's name, now it has dropped to second place giving the crown to Sofía.

Well, this is case in Málaga but the rest of Spain will soon be following suit, no doubt, as evermore foreign names creep into the births registers.

It was almost obligatory to give your daughter the name María, followed by a name of your choice. If you wanted to baptise your daughter, then what the priest says, goes. The Church “highly recommended” biblical names, and that went for boys, too, but not so much, hence all the Joses (Pepes) and Franciscos (Pacos).

The big change came about in the 80s with the advent of the Venezuelan soap operas which was the staple diet of all Marujas (a Spanish housewife) after lunch. Mothers, or soon to be mothers, heard all those Americanised names seeping into Central America, and they wanted their daughters to have those names. The Andalusian comedy duo, Los Morrancos, had a character called, Mari Jennifer, which was a wink at the weird names coming about.

Anyway, here we are today and in Málaga, with all its foreign influence, ‘Maria’ was kicked off the top step to make way for ‘Sofía,’ with ‘Lucia’ in hot pursuit. So for those who were interested enough to have read thus far, here is a list of the top 10 girls names in Málaga: Sofía, María, Lucía, Lola, Vega, Mía, Martina, Manuela, Olivia and Carmen.

And the boys? Thought that you would ask! The top-10 names are: Hugo, Manuel, Mateo, Leo, Alejandro, Pablo, Martín, Álvaro, Lucas and Daniel.

Finally, one of the most popular variations of the name María was ‘Maruja’ (see accompanying photo) which was stereotype housewife; an addict of TV, up to date on any gossip and a dead-eyed shot with a flung slipper at misbehaving children.

(News: Malaga, Andalucia)

Keywords: Girls’ Names, Boys’ Names, María, Sofía, Baptised, Foreign Influence

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