For boys the top names were Roberts, Olivers, Marks, Emīls and Gustavs, according to an interactive tool that allows you to trace the popularity of given names over the last century.
The Central Statistical Bureau's interactive tool allows anyone to follow the rising and falling of a name's popularity and even search by region, which makes for some interesting discoveries.
For example, Klāvs has always been a popular name in Kurzeme region but not in Latgale where the word means "cattle shed" so has not been used. Similarly the popular name 'Ģirts' has not found favor in Latgale where it is a term for drunkenness.
The girl's name Monta was quite popular in the regions of Vidzeme and Kurzeme and a little less popular in the Zemgale region in the 1990s, however, there were not a lot of chances of that happening in the Latgale region, as the name means “thing” in the regional language (as well as having a slightly spicier meaning in slang).
The name Nadina could find it even harder to get into the top of the Latgale region, as it translates as “misfortune”.
Taking the year 1920 we see that the most popular girl's names were Anna, Marija, Milda, Velta and Elza, while for boys the top five were Jānis, Pēteris, Kārlis, Antons and Arvīds.
The influence of everything from politicians' names, popular movies and sports stars can be seen in the relative popularity at different times of certain names.
Interestingly, the CSB notes that some names popular long ago are now making a comeback.
"The trends of girls' names are significantly affected by the names of great-grandmothers and grandmothers.Out of the 20 currently most popular names of new-born girls, seven names had previously lost their popularity and returned to the top around the year 2000, and they are: Sofija, Emīlija, Marta, Alise, Katrīna, Elza and Emma," said the CSB.
Everyone can explore the popularity of names at vardi.csb.gov.lv.
