Last revised: 30 May 2026 · Reviewed by the Baby Name Finder editorial team
We list the source for every one of the 15 supported languages. Where a national registry publishes annual top-name rankings, that registry is the primary source. Where no central registry exists, we use the most recent peer-reviewed academic survey or the relevant religious or cultural reference, and we say so plainly. The "last checked" column is the date an editor most recently verified that the source URL is live and the figures are current.
How to read this page. Each language has a primary source (for popularity rankings) and one or more secondary sources (for traditional and historical names, etymology, and native-script forms). Where two sources disagree, the one listed first is the one we follow by default; we note the disagreement on the affected name page.
Primary sources, per language
| Language | Primary source | Kind | Coverage | Last checked | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 🇺🇸🇬🇧 | English | U.S. Social Security Administration — Popular Baby Names (US); UK Office for National Statistics — Baby names in England & Wales | National registry | Top 1,000, annual | 2026-05-25 |
| 🇪🇸 | Spanish | Instituto Nacional de EstadÃstica (INE) | National registry | Top 100 boys + girls; per-province extended lists | 2026-05-25 |
| 🇫🇷 | French | INSEE — Fichier des prénoms | National registry | All names with ≥3 births per year, 1900–latest | 2026-05-25 |
| 🇩🇪 | German | Gesellschaft für deutsche Sprache (GfdS) — Vornamen-Statistik, drawing on data from Destatis | Linguistic society + national statistics | Annual top 10–500 | 2026-05-25 |
| 🇮🇹 | Italian | ISTAT — Nomi dei nati | National registry | Top 30 boys + girls; full historical series since 1999 | 2026-05-25 |
| 🇧🇷🇵🇹 | Portuguese | IBGE Nomes (Brazil); INE Portugal | National registries | Brazil: full historical series; Portugal: annual top 100 | 2026-05-25 |
| 🇸🇦 | Arabic | Behind the Name — Arabic submissions; BabyCenter Arabia; academic onomastic surveys | Cultural + linguistic references | No single registry — multiple jurisdictions | 2026-05-25 |
| 🇮🇳 | Hindi | Census of India naming surveys; Sanskrit name dictionaries (Apte, Monier-Williams); Behind the Name — Indian submissions | Census + linguistic references | No central baby-name registry | 2026-05-25 |
| 🇯🇵 | Japanese | Meiji Yasuda Life — Annual baby-name rankings | Industry-published | Top 100 boys + girls, annual | 2026-05-25 |
| 🇨🇳 | Chinese | Ministry of Public Security — National Name Reports | National registry | Top 50 first-name characters; surname distribution | 2026-05-25 |
| 🇷🇺 | Russian | Rosstat — vital statistics; Moscow ZAGS published annual lists | National + municipal registries | Top 20 boys + girls, Moscow | 2026-05-25 |
| 🇰🇷 | Korean | Supreme Court of Korea — annual newborn name statistics | National registry | Top 10–100, annual | 2026-05-25 |
| 🇹🇷 | Turkish | TÜİK — Turkish Statistical Institute | National registry | Top 20 boys + girls, annual | 2026-05-25 |
| 🇳🇱 | Dutch | SVB Voornamenbank (Sociale Verzekeringsbank) | National registry | All names with ≥1 birth, full historical depth | 2026-05-25 |
| 🇵🇱 | Polish | Polish Ministry of Digital Affairs — Imiona w Polsce | National registry | Top 50 boys + girls, annual | 2026-05-25 |
Secondary and reference sources
These sources are consulted for etymology, traditional / historical names, native-script forms, and religious / mythological context. They are not used for popularity rankings.
- Onomastic references. Hanks & Hodges, A Dictionary of First Names (Oxford); Albaigès, Diccionari dels noms propis (Catalan); Schwarz, Vornamen heute (German); Tagliavini, Origine e storia dei nomi di persona (Italian).
- Sanskrit etymology. Monier-Williams, Sanskrit-English Dictionary; Apte, Practical Sanskrit-English Dictionary.
- Arabic etymology. Hans Wehr, Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic; Lane's Arabic-English Lexicon.
- Japanese on'yomi / kun'yomi readings. JMnedict (proper-name dictionary), Kanjipedia.
- Religious texts. Hebrew Bible / Tanakh (Masoretic Text), Quran (Hafs reading), Vedas / Upanishads — used only to verify a name's appearance, not to assert popularity.
- Cross-reference. Behind the Name — used to spot-check etymological claims against community-aggregated evidence; never used as the only source.
What we do when sources disagree
Disagreements happen, especially on etymology. Our default is:
- Prefer the primary national registry over any secondary source for popularity facts.
- Prefer a peer-reviewed onomastic reference over a popular baby-name website for etymology.
- If two peer-reviewed sources disagree on origin, cite both on the name page and pick the more conservative reading (the one with fewer derivational steps).
- Where a native-speaker correction conflicts with a published reference, we update the page and add a note explaining the conflict; the publication is not the final word on a living language.
Datasets we publish in return
The cleaned, classified dataset we use to power the generator is published as /names.js under a permissive licence (see the Dataset declaration in our homepage structured data). Researchers and journalists are welcome to download it, cite it, and challenge it. If you use the data, please credit Baby Name Finder and link to this page so readers can audit our sources.
Found a missing or out-of-date source?
If you know a better source — particularly for languages with no central baby-name registry — please write through the contact form with the URL and what it covers. Submissions that meet our sourcing rules are added with credit.