Mateo and Valería were the most popular baby names in the Canaries last year, according to registry reports.
The favourite Canarian names are also popular nationally. Mateo took second place in Spain after Martín, and Valeria is the fourth most popular girl’s name after Lucía, Sofía and Martina.
Mateo’s popularity may be explained by the fact that several celebrities have chosen it for their children in recent years, including Cristiano Ronaldo, Leo Messi, Ricky Martin, and Spanish singer David Bisbal.
In the UK, the English version of Matthew was hugely popular in the 90s, when Matthews such as Perry, and McConaughey were hugely popular, but has now plummeted to 99th place in the list of popular names.
The female version of Valeria, Valerie, reached its peak of popularity in the 1940s, and fell out of favour in the 1960s.
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