Norwegian Baby Name Trends 2025→2026: What Statistics Norway's Newest Data Tells Us

Quick answer

In Norway's 2025 naming data — published by Statistics Norway (SSB) on 28 January 2026 — Noah is the new #1 boys' name (460 babies), overtaking 2024's leader Oliver (which fell from 398 to 343). Emma holds #1 for girls for a second year running (386 babies). The fastest climbers are Hennie (+47%), Birk (+42%), and Frida (+73 babies year-over-year). The steepest drops belong to Oliver (−55), Sara (−27%), and Storm (−37%). Of the 55,401 babies born in Norway in 2025, these are the names parents reached for most. Every number comes directly from SSB's public name tables — no estimates.

The headline: a new #1 for boys, stability for girls

The biggest headline of 2025 is at the very top of the boys' list: after Oliver led in 2024, Noah jumped from second to first, while Oliver slid to fifth. On the girls' side it was the opposite story — Emma stayed put at #1, exactly where she sat in 2024.

Statistics Norway counts every first name given to at least 200 people the previous year, recording them by year of naming (the figures from 2021 onward are "year of naming," not year of birth). The latest release — reference year 2025, updated 28 January 2026 — gives us a clean read on what's rising, what's fading, and where parents are converging.

The names at the top

SSB publishes its rankings split by sex. Among boys, Noah took the top spot with 460 babies named — up sharply from 382 the year before — pushing Oliver off #1 (Oliver dropped from 398 to 343). Emil held second at 405. Among girls, Emma led at 386, ahead of Olivia (368) and Nora (357), with Frida the standout climber inside the top five.

Top 10 girls' names given in Norway, 2025:

Top 10 boys' names given in Norway, 2025:

Source: SSB table 10467, "Born persons, by girls' name and boys' name," contents = born persons, 2024–2025. Figures reflect year of naming; names used by fewer than 4 persons are not published, and the list covers names used by at least 200 persons the previous year.

Who's climbing fastest

The leaderboard moves slowly at the very top, but underneath it the year-over-year shifts are decisive. By raw gain, Frida added 73 babies (264→337), Noah added 78 (382→460), and Birk jumped 74 (177→251). By percentage growth among already-popular names, the story is Hennie (+47%, 148→217) and Birk (+42%) — names that are accelerating, not just holding.

Fastest-rising names, 2024→2025:

The pattern: traditional Scandinavian names gained ground. Birk, Astrid, Sonja, and Frida all climbed double digits in a single year — a measurable swing toward names with deep Norwegian and Nordic roots, alongside the soft modern girls' names at the top of the list.

Who's fading

Movement runs both ways. Oliver lost the most ground in absolute terms, falling 55 (398→343), while Sara (−27%), Storm (−37%), Adam (−20%), and Samuel (−29%) all retreated. Several names that felt inevitable a few years ago — Henrik (−36), Theodor (−29), Even (−32) — softened in 2025.

Biggest fallers, 2024→2025:

What it means for 2026

Two trends are worth watching as 2026 names get registered:

1. Traditional Scandinavian names have momentum. Birk, Astrid, Sonja, and Frida didn't just hold — they climbed double digits in one year. The names with deep Nordic roots are the ones moving up fastest.
2. The "soft classic" girls' names are consolidating. Emma, Olivia, Ella, Sofie, and Frida cluster tightly at the top, separated by a handful of babies. Small shifts will reorder this group in 2026 — it's the most contested part of the list.

The harder question: which names do couples actually agree on?

Popularity data tells you what the country chose. It doesn't tell you how two parents got to "yes." That's a different problem — and the one most expecting couples are actually stuck on. A name can be #1 in Norway and still be a hard no for one partner.

That's the gap babynames.love is built for: both partners swipe through names privately, and when you both swipe yes, it's a match. Our daily suggestions are drawn from this same Statistics Norway birth data — so the names you're shown are real, current, and grounded in what Norwegian parents are actually choosing, not a generic global list.

Methodology & sources

All figures are from Statistics Norway (SSB), the national statistics authority, via its open PxWeb API:

• Table 10467 — "Born persons, by girls' name and boys' name 1880–2025." Contents code Personer (born persons), reference years 2024 and 2025. Dataset updated 28 January 2026. Boy/girl split comes from the table's own name coding.
• Table 04231 — "Live births, by region, sex" — for the 2025 total (55,401 live births nationally; 54,013 in 2024).
• SSB's published rules for the names table: figures under 4 persons are not published, and the name list includes first names used by at least 200 persons the previous year, counted by year of birth (before 2021) or year of naming (from 2021 onwards). Rare names are therefore out of scope by design.
• "Rising/falling" = year-over-year change 2024→2025, filtered to names with a 2024 base of at least ~80–100 so percentages are meaningful (not small-number noise).

Last verified against SSB data updated 28 January 2026. We re-check when SSB releases the next annual update.