Most Popular Baby Boy Names in Portugal 2025 (IRN) and Their Meanings

The most popular boy name in Portugal in 2025 is, once again, Francisco. According to records of the IRN, Portugal's Institute of Registries and Notary, up to 30 November 2025, 1,495 baby boys were given the name. The real news is in second place: Tomás, with 1,318 babies. In the 2021–2025 data we have, Tomás has never ranked higher.

Below you will find the 2025 top 10 with meanings, Arabic spellings and Abjad values, followed by each name's five-year journey through the rankings and the names worth watching on the way to 2026.

Three questions before you read the list

Is this an official list? The figures come from the IRN and the Portuguese Ministry of Justice it belongs to, but the IRN has not published a full list on its own website for years; each year it sends short lists to the press. The numbers here are the IRN/Ministry figures as reported in the media.

Why only 10 names? For 2025 and 2024 only a top 10 was released. For 2021, 2022 and 2023 there are top 20 lists covering the full year or close to it. So we cannot know what comes after 10th place in 2025.

Can the counts be compared across years? No. The 2025 list is provisional and stops at 30 November; the 2024 list is also provisional and partial, and the press gave different cut-off months for it. That is why we compare ranks, not baby counts, across years. One note: some news texts give 1,356 for Tomás; we use the 1,318 that appears in the lists.

The top 10 boy names of 2025

None of the ten names is new to Portugal: all of them were already in the 2021 top 20. Their roots are Latin, Hebrew, Aramaic, Germanic and Old English, while Duarte and Afonso are familiar from the history of Portugal's kings.

* No established Arabic spelling was found for Martim; the value is calculated from a phonetic spelling based on its pronunciation.

Together the ten names were given to 11,482 babies. The gap between Francisco and Tomás is 177 babies; between Tomás and third-placed Duarte it is 62.

Five years of rankings

The table shows where the 2025 top 10 names stood since 2021. The 2021–2023 columns are near-full-year top 20 lists; 2024 and 2025 (starred) are provisional top 10 lists. "—" means the name was not in that year's published list, not that no baby received it. "3=" marks a tie: in 2024 Tomás and Vicente shared third place with the same count.

• Francisco is No. 1 in all five years.
• Seven names (Francisco, Tomás, Duarte, Afonso, João, Lourenço, Gabriel) made the top 10 every year.
• Lourenço fell from second in 2024 to seventh in 2025, the biggest drop among names in both years' top 10.
• Duarte and Afonso each climbed three places, back to 3rd and 4th.
• Martim was missing from the 2024 top 10; in 2025 it is 8th.
• Santiago was 10th in 2024 and did not make the 2025 top 10. The name that took its place is Martim.

One more detail: the 2025 top 10 differs from the 2023 top 10 by just one name. Miguel is in, Santiago is out.

The Abjad view: Portuguese names in Arabic letters

Abjad works with the numerical values of Arabic letters. The value of each Portuguese name was calculated from its established Arabic spelling (mostly the form used in the Arabic press and encyclopedias); vowel marks and shadda are not counted.

• First-letter elements: 5 of the top 10 begin with a fire letter (Francisco ف, Afonso أ, Vicente ف, Martim م, Miguel م). 3 begin with an earth letter (Duarte د, Lourenço ل, Gabriel غ), one with air (Tomás ت) and one with water (João ج). Some authors classify the letters differently.
• Highest value: Gabriel (1253), because of the opening غ, worth 1000 on its own.
• Lowest value: João (16). The spelling جواو has only small letters: ج 3, و 6, ا 1, و 6.
• A different spelling, a different value: Tomás is 507 written توماس but 116 written طوماس. Francisco's spellings فرانسيسكو (487) and فرنسيسكو (486) differ by a single alif.

Equivalents from the scriptures

Several names on the list have a much older, traditional equivalent in Arabic. These are separate spellings with their own values; neither can be called "luckier" than the other.

A small coincidence: Miguel's mushaf form ميكال (101) has the same value as أليس, the Arabic spelling of Alice, the No. 2 girl name in Portugal in 2025.

Rising names for 2026

There is no 2026 data yet, and we make no forecast here. We simply list the names worth watching, based on rank movements in the lists published for 2021–2025:

• Vicente: 12th in 2021, then 7th in 2023, 3rd in 2024 and 5th in 2025. Seven places higher in five years.
• Tomás: 5, 4, 5, 3 and now 2. Of the seven names that were in the top 10 every year, it gained the most since 2021: three places.
• Martim and Miguel: both two places above 2023; Miguel was 11th in 2023, Martim 10th.

In short: every name in the 2025 top 10 was already in the 2021 top 20; what changes is the order among them.

A value alone is not an analysis

Gabriel's 1253 or João's 16 says little on its own. In the Abjad tradition the real question is how a name meets the mother's and father's names: do the elements support or strain each other? The child's yıldızname (star chart) is also calculated together with the mother's name. That comparison can only be made with your own family's names.

Source: Instituto dos Registos e do Notariado (IRN) / Portuguese Ministry of Justice figures, as reported in the press; provisional January–November 2025 top 10 for 2025, provisional partial-year top 10 for 2024, near-full-year top 20 lists for 2021–2023. Figures are based on births registered in the Portuguese civil registry.

Note: The lists are provisional and cover only the top 10; final year-end figures may differ. Name meanings are based on common dictionary information, and Arabic spellings may vary between sources. Abjad values and element interpretations are for information only, rooted in the Abjad tradition, and do not express certainty or guarantees.