Aron was the most popular given name for newborn boys and Emilía for newborn girls in 2018. The majority of children received two or more given names. Þór was the most popular second name for boys and María for girls.
In the population as a whole the rankings of the most popular given names have not changed significantly since 2014. On 1 January 2019, Jón was the most frequent first name for men, and Jón Þór the most frequent double name. Among women, Guðrún was the most popular name while Anna María was the most popular of the double name combinations.
Names in Iceland through time
Both Jón and Guðrún have been the most popular names through time. This can be seen in the Icelandic National Registry 1 January 2019, when the most popular names are counted broken down by age cohorts, as shown in the table below. The name Anna was more popular than the name Guðrún with the age cohorts born in 1981-1985. However, Guðrún regained popularity for girls born in 1991-1995 but lost first place to Anna in the 1996-2000 cohort. The name Sara has been the most popular name for women born in 2006-2019. Naming practices for men seem to be more conservative than for women through time. Jón held first place until the 2006-2010 age cohorts were born, when Alexander became more popular. The name Aaron has been the most popular male name since 2011.
| Most common name by birth year 1 January 2019 | ||||
| Birth year | Males | Females | ||
| Before 1961 | Jón | Guðrún | ||
| 1961-1965 | Jón | Guðrún | ||
| 1966-1970 | Jón | Guðrún | ||
| 1971-1975 | Jón | Guðrún | ||
| 1976-1980 | Jón | Guðrún | ||
| 1981-1985 | Jón | Anna | ||
| 1986-1990 | Jón | Anna | ||
| 1991-1995 | Jón | Guðrún | ||
| 1996-2000 | Jón | Anna | ||
| 2001-2005 | Jón | Anna | ||
| 2006-2010 | Alexander | Sara | ||
| 2011-2015 | Aron | Sara | ||
| 2016-2019 | Aron | Sara | ||
Name by regions
Most men in Iceland are called Jón, Sigurður or Guðmundur but the most common names for women are Guðrún, Anna or Kristín, regardless of the place of birth. Girls born between 2016 and 2019 are most likely named Íris, Embla or Salka if they are born in the East; Sara, Bríet or Emelía in the Northeast; Karen in the Northwest, Emma in the Westfjords, Emilía in the West, Hanna in the Southwest, Sara in the Capital region and Elísabet or Saga if their domicile at birth was in the South region. Boys born in 2016-2019 are most likely named Aron if they are from the Capital region, Alexander if they are from the Southwest or East, Haukur if they are from the Westfjords, Baltasar in the Northwest and Sigurður in the South.
| Table 2. Five most common names by regions and sex of cohorts born between 2016-2019 from population register 1 January 2019 | ||||||||
| Capital region | Southwest | West | Westfjords | Northwest | Northeast | East | South | |
| Boys | (1) Aron | (1) Alexander | (1) Aron | (1) Haukur | (1) Baltasar | (1) Aron | (1) Alexander | (1) Sigurður |
| (2) Alexander | (2) Jökull | (2) Viktor | (2) Jón | (2) Einar | (2) Jökull | (2) Guðmundur | (2) Aron | |
| (3) Kári | (3) Jón | (3) Magnús | (3) Sigurður | (3) Hilmir | (3) Viktor | (3) Jóhann | (3) Arnar | |
| (4) Mikael | (4) Arnar | (4) Emil | (4) Birkir | (4) Arnór | (4) Alexander | (4) Andri | (4) Gunnar | |
| (5) Emil | (5) Ragnar | (5) Rúrik | (5) Elías | (5) Kristófer | (5) Guðmundur | (5) Úlfur | (5) Jón | |
| Girls | (1) Sara | (1) Hanna | (1) Emilía | (1) Emma | (1) Karen | (1) Sara | (1) Íris | (1) Elísabet |
| (2) Lilja | (2) Bríet | (2) Kristín | (2) Auður | (2) Guðrún | (2) Bríet | (2) Embla | (2) Saga | |
| (3) Embla | (3) Júlía | (3) Alexandra | (3) Ronja | (3) Árný | (3) Emilía | (3) Salka | (3) Karen | |
| (4) Eva | (4) Rakel | (4) Maren | (4) Hekla | (4) Emma | (4) Lilja | (4) Maja | (4) Fanney | |
| (5) Anna | (5) Sara | (5) Lilja | (5) María | (5) Arney | (5) Birta | (5) Margrét | (5) Sigrún | |
Birthdays in the summer months more common
Birthdays in Iceland are not evenly spread over the year and fewer persons are born in the winter from October to March than other months. Most people celebrate their birthday on 27 September (1,123) while, apart from 29 February with 217 persons in the population as of 1 January 2019 born on that day, Christmas Day had the fewest birthday celebrators (724).
About the data
The results are processed on the basis of registrations in the National Registry at the beginning of 2019.
From 1991 the place of birth is defined as the legal domicile of the mother but before that it was based on the region in which the mother gave birth to the child.