Most Popular Baby Girl Names in Spain 2024 (INE) and Their Meanings

The name given most often to baby girls born in Spain in 2024 was Sofía: 3,325 babies. That is a change at the top. In the 2021–2024 data we hold, Lucía was No. 1 in 2021, 2022 and 2023. In 2024 Lucía slipped to second place with 2,830 babies, and the gap between the two names grew to 495. The figures come from the birth statistics of INE, Spain's National Statistics Institute, and cover the whole country.

2024 is the most recent official year available today: INE published these final figures on 19 November 2025, and as it releases the list each November, the 2025 names are expected around November 2026.

True or false? Five claims about the Spanish list

Before the table, let us test five assumptions people often make when reading name rankings, using INE's own figures.

1. "Sofía came first because Lucía declined."

Half true. Two things happened at once. More babies were named Sofía (2,990 → 3,325) and fewer were named Lucía (3,076 → 2,830). The ranking changed hands through both movements together.

2. "Chloe and Cloe are counted as one name."

False. INE counts each spelling on its own line. Chloe ranks No. 21 in 2024 with 1,198 babies. Cloe was No. 86 in 2023 (305 babies) and fell outside the top 100 in 2024. Anyone comparing names that sound alike needs to look up every spelling separately.

3. "INE publishes the names with their accents."

False. In the INE file the names appear in capital letters without accents: SOFIA, LUCIA, MARIA. In this article we give them in their Spanish spelling (Sofía, Lucía, María); accented and unaccented forms are already counted as one name.

4. "The top 100 covers almost every girl."

False. 154,273 girls were born in Spain in 2024. The babies given a top-100 name add up to 79,673, or 51.6%. Almost half of all baby girls carry a name outside the list.

5. "Vega is just the name of a star."

Incomplete. In Spanish, vega is an ordinary word for a fertile low-lying plain or meadow. The bright star in the constellation Lyra takes its name from the Arabic al-wāqiʿ (الواقع, "the swooping one", in full "the swooping eagle").

The 30 most popular girl names in Spain in 2024

The Arabic spelling column shows the form used in Arabic script, or built from the pronunciation; the Abjad value is calculated from that spelling. A name written in the Latin alphabet has no single Abjad value until its Arabic spelling is fixed.

Together the top 30 names were given to 46,324 babies, against 48,086 for the 2023 top 30. Only 8 of the thirty were given to more babies than a year earlier: Sofía, Vega, Olivia, Lola, Gala, Laia, Candela and Victoria. It is worth keeping in mind that the number of girls born in Spain also fell (156,039 → 154,273).

Vega's leap and the other movers

The most striking rise of 2024 belongs to Vega: from No. 10 to No. 5, with 410 more babies given the name. That is the largest increase in the top 100, followed by Sofía (+335) and the Catalan name Laia (+110). In 2021 Vega was No. 15.

In and out of the top 30

• In: Candela (No. 31 → 27) and Victoria (No. 36 → 29). Victoria was No. 42 in 2021.
• Out: Aitana (No. 26 → 35) and Alejandra (No. 27 → 31). Both left the top 30 but remain in the top 100.

The biggest falls in numbers within the top 100

255 fewer babies were named Valeria (No. 6 → 8). Next come Lucía (−246) and Daniela (−224; No. 14 → 18). The numbers show the change, not its cause, and we do not speculate.

A quiet four-year climb: Gala

Gala was No. 48 in 2021 and is No. 16 in 2024, a rise of 32 places and the longest climb by any of today's top 30 in our 2021–2024 data. In 2024 Alana, Aria, Amelia and Teresa entered the top 100 for the first time in our data, while Maia, on the list in 2021 and 2022, returned after missing 2023.

Names of Arabic origin on the list

There is no Arabic-origin name in the top 30, although the star name behind Vega comes from Arabic. Further down the top 100 are names also common in the Arab world: Amira (No. 49), Nour (No. 75), Yasmín (No. 81), Layan (No. 89), Arabic for "soft, gentle", and Fátima (No. 100), the name of the Prophet Muhammad's daughter Fatimah. Among names in the top 100 in both years, the one that climbed most places also belongs to this group: Aya (آية), from No. 99 to No. 82. Ayah means "sign, proof" in Arabic and is a word found in the Qur'an. María in the top 30 is the Spanish form of Maryam, the only woman mentioned by name in the Qur'an.

The 2024 list through Abjad

Values are calculated from the Arabic spelling in the table, following our site's convention: letters count as written, a shadda is not counted twice, alif with hamza is 1 and tāʾ marbūṭa (ة) is 5.

• First letters: 7 of the top 10 begin with a Fire letter in the classical scheme: Martina, María and Mia with mīm (م), Vega and Valeria with fāʾ (ف), Olivia and Emma with alif (ا). Because the Latin letter v is traditionally rendered in Arabic with fāʾ (ف), Vega and Valeria join this group. Sofía falls under Air with ṣād (ص), Julia under Water with jīm (ج) and Lucía under Earth with lām (ل). Across the whole top 30 the split is 12 Fire, 8 Water, 6 Earth and 4 Air. Note that some authors classify the letters differently.
• Highest and lowest: the highest value is Vega (فيغا) at 1091, 1000 of it from a single letter, ghayn (غ). The lowest is Alba (ألبا) at 34, just ahead of Gala (جالا) at 35.
• One sound, two letters: the Spanish g sound is written in Arabic sometimes with jīm (ج, 3) and sometimes with ghayn (غ, 1000). Vega's established spelling uses ghayn; Gala gives 35 as جالا and 1032 as غالا.
• Shared values: María (ماريا) and Carla (كارلا) meet at 252, Olivia (أوليفيا) and Manuela (مانويلا) at 138. There is no other match in the top 30.
• A different spelling, a different value: María is 252 as ماريا and 256 as مارية; its traditional counterpart Maryam (مريم) is 290. Victoria is 717 as فكتوريا and 727 as فيكتوريا. Sara is 266 as سارة and 262 as سارا.

No spelling is "luckier" than another. But because the value depends so much on the spelling, our paid reports always begin by fixing the exact spelling of the baby's and the parents' names. And a value on its own is not an analysis: the real question is what balance of elements the baby's name forms with the mother's and father's names. Even María and Carla, with the same number, may not suit the same family equally.

Final word

In Spain's 2024 list the top spot changed hands, Vega settled into the top five and Gala has risen 32 places since 2021. A name's rank tells you about fashion; whether it suits your family depends on its meaning and on how it relates to the parents' names.

Source: Spanish National Statistics Institute (INE), birth statistics — names of newborns (Nombres de los recién nacidos), final 2024 data (published 19 November 2025) and 2023 data. The figures are the numbers of baby girls born in Spain who were given each name.

Note: This article is for information only. Abjad and letter elements are a traditional interpretive framework; no claim is made that a name determines anything about a person's life.