European Baby Name Database

About the EuroNameCheck name database

This is the only publicly indexed European baby-name database that pairs each name with the exact legal status, the registering authority, the law, and the registration window for every country it covers. Every one of the 350 pages linked above is a hand-written legal snapshot — not an algorithmic guess. We focused on 50 names that are simultaneously popular, classically European in origin, and cross-border recognisable, so families with one parent in Madrid, one in Stockholm and a baby due in Berlin can plan with confidence.

Names are drawn from Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Germanic, Norse and Romance traditions — the bedrock layers of European onomastics. You'll find classical Roman choices (Lucia, Aurora, Valentina, Antonio, Lorenzo), Greek myths and saints (Sofia, Chloe, Sebastian, Alexander), Hebrew Old Testament names (Noah, Adam, David, Anna, Maria), Germanic survivors (Emma, Hugo, Carla, Alice), Scandinavian short forms (Mia, Maja, Jonas, Tobias), and Italian Renaissance favourites (Beatrice, Ginevra, Matteo, Lorenzo).

How to use this database

Pick a name from the grid, then click the flag of the country where the baby will be registered. Each landing page tells you in 30 seconds whether the name is legally registrable, the spelling required by the local authority, and which office handles the paperwork. If your shortlist crosses multiple countries, open one tab per country — the URL pattern is predictable: /name/{name}-{country}.html. You can also use the search box above to filter by name as you type, or the pill buttons to narrow by country or gender.

Outside the 50 highlighted names, the main checker on the homepage queries our larger corpus of 110,000+ first names across all 25 European countries we track. Use this database first for the popular options; fall back to the homepage checker for rarer, regional, or invented names.

Coverage and legal systems

We track 50 of the most popular European baby names across 7 countries with strict, moderate, and permissive naming systems. The countries were chosen to represent every type of European baby-name regulation a parent will encounter:

• Permissive systems — Spain (Registro Civil under Ley 20/2011), France (État civil under Article 57 Code Civil since the 1993 reform), and Sweden (Skatteverket under Personnamnlagen 2016:1013). Any name that does not harm the child is accepted.
• Moderate systems — Germany (Standesamt under the Personenstandsgesetz) and Italy (Stato civile under DPR 396/2000). Officers may refuse names that are ridiculous, ambiguous about sex, or could expose the child to mockery.
• Strict systems — Portugal (IRN, ruling against the official Vocabulário Onomástico positive list) and Iceland (Mannanafnanefnd under Lög um mannanöfn, the 1996 Personal Names Act). Names must appear on a pre-approved register or be individually licensed.

The same name can therefore be instantly accepted in one country and rejected in another — "Lucia" sails through Spain and Italy but needs adaptation in Iceland, and "Mateo" is the Spanish norm but reads as "Matteo" in Italy and "Mathieu" in France. Each name's per-country page makes the spelling and process explicit so you avoid a wasted trip to the registry.

Browse by country

Every country also has its own full guide with the top-30 most popular names, the local naming law, registration deadlines, and rejection criteria:

Browse by gender

The 50 names split roughly evenly — 23 girls' names and 27 boys' names. Some of the strongest cross-border choices are gender-neutral in spelling but legally registered as one or the other: Sasha-style fluidity is rare in Romance-language registries, where the Latin grammatical ending usually settles the question (final "-a" feminine, final "-o" or consonant masculine). The strictest country, Iceland, splits its approved list explicitly into M and F columns.

Browse by origin and meaning

Etymology is more than trivia — it explains why "Aurora" is universally accepted (Roman dawn goddess, ancient and inoffensive) while a freshly invented name will be sent back. Our long-form origin guides dig into each tradition:

Frequently asked questions