UPDATED: She’s often viewed as one of Norway’s most hard-working and non-controversial royals. Now Princess Astrid’s name has made a comeback on the list of those most popular among Norwegian parents having babies last year, when there also was a baby boom of sorts.
Norway’s state statistics bureau SSB (Statistics Norway) has unveiled its annual list of the 10 most popular names for both girls and boys born last year. The girl’s name Astrid made an appearance for the first time in 80 years.
“Astrid is an old name that was always in the top-10 list of names from 1896 until 1945, with one exception in 1943,” said Anders Sønstebø of SSB. Now it’s back, albeit in 10th place at the national level, but chosen often enough by parents to regain recognition. Astrid was the seventh-most popular name in the Oslo area.
It’s difficult to determine whether parents chose the name Astrid, or “Astri” as it’s sometimes spelled, because of the princess, but there’s no question she remains popular and respected in Norway, especially among seniors. They remember her as Norway’s “First Lady” from 1954 (when her mother, the late Crown Princess Martha, died) until 1968, when her brother, Crown Prince Harald at the time, married Sonja Haraldsen.
The new Crown Princess Sonja then took over the First Lady role, not least when she became Queen Sonja in 1991 and Harald became King Harald V. Princess Astrid, though, has continued performing royal duties all along and has kept working into her 90s (she turned 94 on February 12).
She was recently among those due to attend the annual gala dinner at the Royal Palace for Norway’s diplomatic corps, still has 12 organizations under her patronage, attends sporting events and makes frequent public appearances. At at time when Norway’s Royal Family has been hit with one scandal after another in recent years, Princess Astrid has managed to remain scandal-free.
The most popular names on SSB’s list this year, meanwhile, were Emma for girls and Noah for boys. The boys’ names list was followed, in terms of popularity, by Jakob, Lucas, Emil, Oskar, William, Elias, Isak, Oliver and Ludvig, reflecting a new increase in Biblical names.
Following “Emma” as the girls’ most popular names were, in order, Olivia, Nora, Sofie, Leah, Ella, Frida, Sofia, Ellinor and Astrid. Both lists reflect variations in spellings. If parents named a boy “Jacob,” for example, it counted for Jakob.
There were also more babies born in Norway last year, for the third year in a row. A total of 55,847 children were born in 2025, up 2.5 percent from 2024, which was also higher than 2023. The increase last year was highest in Northern Norway, where births climbed by 4.6 percent.
Norwegian politicians worried about an overall ageing of the population have been encouraging higher birth rates with generous paid parental leave that can be shared by mothers and fathers, and another reduction in day care rates, now down to around NOK 1,200 (just over USD 120) per month. Parents at all income levels also enjoy lots of other welfare aid for children in Norway, including monthly payments per child that also were recently boosted by the current Labour Party government.
NewsinEnglish.no/Nina Berglund
