Marc and Maria have remained the most popular first names in Belgium according to the latest release of data on first names.
According to Statbel, due to a long stretch of popularity historically, these names continue to dominate. The top male names, Marc, Jean and Patrick were popularly given to babies born between the fifties and seventies.
Despite their ongoing commonality, their numbers are declining. Every name in the top 10 for both men and women declined between July 2024 and 2025, except Mohamed and David.
Statbel also shares some of the names across Belgium potentially inspired by celebrities noting there are 19 Beyoncés, 196 Rihannas, 570 Elvises, and 26 Neymars.
However, for newborn babies, there is a continuing shift in names away from the traditional. This shift is also being witnessed in other European countries.
Baby names in Belgium are becoming increasingly Anglicised. The most popular newborn names for girls in 2025 were Olivia, Emma, Louise, Lina, and Sofia. For boys, it is Noah, Arthur, Jules, Louis, and Liam.
This is similar to the UK where, according to the Office for National Statistics, the top name for girls in 2023 was Olivia, and for boys, it was Muhammad followed by Noah.
This overlap is also apparent with other places in Europe with Lina, Louise, Louis, Noah, and Arthur also making the list of top 10 names in France according to website Statista. Similar results can can be seen in the Netherlands where Noah and Olivia also feature high on the list.
But what about Brussels?
Brussels tends to buck the Belgian trend in some statistics as a global city. The most common male first name is Mohamed (the 8th most common name in Belgium), followed by the derivative Mohammed. The other names making the top five are Jean, Ahmed, and David.
For women, the top names are Maria and Marie, which follows the Belgian-wide trend. However in third place is Fatima, followed by Anne and Sarah.
Similar to the rest of the country, Brussels also breaks from the past with a range of alternative baby names.
The top names for baby boys are Adam, Mohamed, Gabriel, Ibrahim and Noah. Meanwhile, for girls, it is Sofia, Nour, Emma, Inaya, and Lina.
While Peeters, Janssens, and Maes may dominate across Belgium as the main surname, in Brussels family names reflect the diversity of the city. In Brussels-Region Diallo, Bah, Barry, Sow, and Nguyen make up the top five family names.
