“Miguel,” “Helena” Brazil’s most popular given names in 2023

In 2023, the most commonly registered names in Brazilian registry offices were short, biblical, or unique, as per a survey by the National Association of Natural Persons Registrars (Arpen-Brasil). The names preferred by Brazilians this year were Miguel, with 25,140 registrations, and Helena, with 23,047.

Miguel repeated his lead from last year’s ranking. Helena, who last year lost out to Maria Alice, took over the top spot in 2023.

In addition to these two heading the list, the names most frequently given by Brazilians this year were Gael, Theo, Arthur, Heitor, Maria Alice, Alice, Davi, and Laura, common also last year, but in different positions.

New legislation

According to Arpen, the choice of these names comes after 2022 allowed anyone over the age of 18 to legally change their names, regardless of reason and with no legal proceedings required. During this period, Brazilian registry offices recorded 10,314 name changes.