Brazil continues to be a country of Marias, Josés, Silvas, and Santos. The finding comes from the new edition of the Nomes no Brasil survey, released this Monday (4) by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE). The study, based on the 2022 Demographic Census, updates and expands the previous research, conducted in 2016 based on data from the 2010 Census.
According to IBGE, the project gained new features and now also includes the most common surnames among the Brazilian population. The second edition of the tool reveals that, among the more than 140,000 first names analyzed, Maria and José remain firmly in the lead. Among the more than 200,000 registered surnames, Silva tops the list, present in the identification of 16.76% of Brazilians.
Interactive Tool and New Features
The Nomes no Brasil website allows users to explore the database by gender, birth period, and initial letter of the name. It is also possible to generate customized rankings by municipality, state, or for the entire national territory. By clicking on a name, the visitor views the number of records, its geographic distribution, and a timeline with frequency by decade.
“The success of the first version showed great public interest in knowing the origin and popularity of names. In this edition, we expanded the research possibilities and added new dimensions of analysis,” said Rodrigo Almeida Rego, IBGE’s Manager of Innovation and Development and project manager.
Trends Over Time
The data show how name preferences have changed over the decades. Classic examples like Osvaldo and Terezinha have median ages above 60 years, while recent names like Gael and Helena have much lower averages—1 and 8 years, respectively.
The research also highlights the strong concentration of some names in specific cities. In Morrinhos (CE) and Bela Cruz (CE), about 22% of the population is named Maria. In Santana do Acaraú (CE), one in every ten people is named Ana. In Piauí, in Buriti dos Montes, the name Antonio predominates among 10% of the inhabitants.
Surnames and Regional Identity
Among surnames, the study shows the strength of family traditions. In Sergipe, 43.38% of the population has Santos in their civil registry. In Alagoas and Pernambuco, the surname Silva appears in more than one-third of records—35.75% and 34.23%, respectively.
Names Around the World and Cultural Curiosities
One of the main new features of the site is the interactive map Nomes no Mundo, which allows comparing the most common names and surnames in different countries. Visitors can, for example, discover that China’s most popular surname, Wang, is shared by 1,513 people in Brazil. Or that the Bolivian names Juan and Juana total more than 70,000 records in Brazilian territory.
The platform also includes a section dedicated to Onomastics, the field that studies the origin and meaning of names. This tab brings facts and curiosities that reveal cultural and social aspects of different eras and regions.
Privacy and Methodology
IBGE emphasizes that the data follow strict statistical privacy criteria. Names or surnames with fewer than 20 occurrences in the country are not displayed in full, and geographic information only appears when there are more than 15 records per state or 10 per municipality.
Data collection was based on residents registered in the 2022 Census, with reference date of August 1 of that year. The first name and first surname reported by each respondent were considered, respecting the original spelling, even in cases of variations like Luis/Luiz or Ian/Yan.
With the new survey, IBGE consolidates a portrait of the country’s nominal diversity, showing how names express the history, culture, and social transformations of Brazil across generations.
Source: brasil247.com