SHARE
COPY LINK

NAMES

Maryam now Sweden’s fastest growing name

The Middle Eastern girls' name Maryam is now the fastest growing name in Sweden among newborns, up 70 percent on last year, according to new figures from Statistics Sweden.

Maryam now Sweden's fastest growing name
Three Swedish Maryams, left to right: MP Maryam Yazdanfar; documentary filmmaker Maryam Ebrahimi; and basketball player Maryam Gültekin.
Maryam was one of seven new entries to the list of Sweden's 100 most popular girls' names for newborns included in a press release from the agency on Wednesday, ahead of the release of the full figures on February 27th. 
 
No fewer than 177 newborns were given the name, shooting it straight into 78th place, ahead of the other new entrants Noomi, Hedvig, Mira, Zoey, Idun, and Melina. 
 
Maryam is the form taken by the name Mary, the mother of Jesus, in Arabic, Farsi, Somali, and other languages, and is popular among both Christians and Muslims across the Middle East, Southeast Asia and North Africa. 
 
“It's the most fast-growing name for girls but I don't know why,” Margareta Carlsson, from Statistics Sweden told The Local. “I can't see a celebrity named Maryam. I don't have any guess even.” 
 
In 2015 the name Saga shot from 21st to fourth most popular name, likely as a result of Nordic Noir heroine Saga Norén in 'The Bridge'. However, Carlsson said it was unusual for a name to see such rapid growth, with name popularity tending to shift gradually from generation to generation. 
 
Three new boys' names joined the top 100, led by Levi and Vide, which entered the list in joint 98th place, with the third name, Neo, just managing to slip in after them. 
 
Matteo was the fastest growing boy's name, seeing a 33 percent increase on last year. 
 
Lovisa and Ville, meanwhile, were the two names which fell most out of favour, with the number of new Lovisas falling 34 percent and Villes 24 percent. 
 
The name Alice retained last year's spot as the most popular girl's name in Sweden with 888 newborns, while long-time favourite William regained its place as the most popular boy's name, with 941 newborns, after slipping to third place last year. 
 
Oscar, last year's favourite, was knocked into second place. 

ECONOMY

Spain’s middle-class youngsters the most likely to end up poor across all EU

Spain leads the ranking of EU countries with the highest risk of young people ending up in poverty as adults, despite coming from families without economic difficulties.

Spain is the fourth EU country with the highest inherited poverty
Spain is EU country with most middle-class young people who end up poor. Photo: Jaime ALEKOS / AFP

Spain is also the fourth EU country with the highest rate of inherited poverty risk, according to Eurostat, the EU Statistical Office.

Data on intergenerational poverty indicates that there is a correlation between the financial situation of the household you grew up in and the risk of being poor when you reach adulthood and in Spain, there is a strong link. 

The latest statistics available from 2019 show that the at-risk-of-poverty rate for the EU was 23 percent among adults aged 25 to 59 who grew up in a poor financial situation at home when they were 14 years old. This is 9.6 percentage points more than those who come from families without financial problems (13.4 percent). 

READ ALSO: Spain’s inflation soars to 29-year high

How the situation in Spain compares with the EU

Spain has become the EU country with the highest risk of poverty among adults who grew up in families with a good financial situation  – 16.6 percent.

This was followed by Latvia with 16 percent and Italy with 15.9 percent.

That statistics also show the countries where it is less likely to be poor after growing up in households without economic difficulties. These include the Czech Republic (5.9 percent), Slovakia (7.9 percent) and Finland (8.5 percent).

The overall poverty rate in the EU decreased by 0.1 percentage points between 2011 (13.5 percent) and 2019 (13.4 percent), but the largest increases were seen in Denmark (1.9 points more), Portugal (1.8 points), the Netherlands (1.7 points) and Spain (1.2 points).  

On the other hand, the biggest decreases in the poverty rate were seen in Croatia (-4 percent), Lithuania (-3.6 percent), Slovakia (-3.5 percent) and Ireland (-3.2 percent).

READ ALSO: Spain’s government feels heat as economic recovery lags

Inherited poverty

The stats revealed that Spain was also the fourth country with the highest rate of inherited poverty risk (30 percent), only behind Bulgaria (40.1 percent), Romania (32.7 percent) and Italy (30.7 percent).

This means that children of poor parents in Spain are also likely to be poor in adulthood. 

The countries with the lowest rate of inherited poverty risk were the Czech Republic (10.2 percent), Denmark (10.3 percent) and Finland (10.5 percent).

The average risk-of-poverty rate for the EU increased by 2.5 percentage points between 2011 (20.5 percent) and 2019 (23 percent), with the largest increases seen in Bulgaria (6 points more), Slovakia and Romania (4.3 points), Italy (4.2 points) and Spain (4.1 points).

The biggest drops were seen in Latvia (-8.5 points), Estonia (-8.0 points) and Croatia (-2.3 points). 

The largest gaps in people at risk of poverty when they reach adulthood were in Bulgaria (27.6 percentage points more among those who belong to families with a poor economic situation as teenagers compared to those who grew up in wealthy households), Romania (17.1), Italy (14.8), Greece (13.5) and Spain (13.4).

SHOW COMMENTS