Data · Baby names
The Most Popular Girls' Names in Croatia Over the Last 10 Years
Which girls' names topped the charts in Croatia from 2015 to 2025? We break down the rankings, the trends, and how the top five names traded places year by year — with data from the Croatian Bureau of Statistics.
Updated July 8, 2026 · 6 min read
Naming a daughter is a decision families weigh carefully — balancing tradition, sound, meaning and a sense of the times. In Croatia, girls' names have shifted noticeably over the past decade, with short, soft-sounding names rising to the very top.
We gathered a decade of official data from the Croatian Bureau of Statistics (DZS), covering 2015 to 2025, to see which girls' names Croatian parents chose most often, how the leaders traded places, and which names climbed or slipped. Here's a decade of Croatian girls' names in numbers.
A decade of girls, by the numbers
Across the years we track, the ten most popular girls' names each year accounted for roughly 2,900–4,700 newborns annually. As with boys, the trend reflects Croatia's wider demographics: fewer children overall, and popularity spread across a slightly wider set of names than a decade ago.
Even so, a small circle of names has defined the top of the list — though, unlike the boys' chart, the number-one spot for girls has changed hands more than once.
| Year | Births |
|---|---|
| 2015 | 4,238 |
| 2016 | 4,263 |
| 2017 | 4,408 |
| 2018 | 4,713 |
| 2019 | 3,776 |
| 2020 | 3,708 |
| 2021 | 3,670 |
| 2022 | 3,418 |
| 2023 | 3,269 |
| 2024 | 2,949 |
| 2025 | 3,070 |
The names that led the decade
Ranked by total births over the period, a clear group of favourites stands out. But the story at the very top is one of competition rather than dominance: more than one name has reached number one across these years.
The chart below tracks each leading name's rank position year by year — the higher the line, the more popular the name that year. Notice how the top few lines weave around one another, trading the lead.
- Mia
- Lucija
- Ema
- Sara
- Nika
- Marta
| # | Name | Total births | Best rank | 2025 rank | Years in data |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mia | 5,972 | #1 | #2 | 11 |
| 2 | Lucija | 4,558 | #2 | #4 | 11 |
| 3 | Ema | 4,255 | #2 | #7 | 11 |
| 4 | Sara | 4,120 | #2 | #9 | 11 |
| 5 | Nika | 4,112 | #1 | #1 | 11 |
| 6 | Marta | 3,735 | #5 | #5 | 11 |
| 7 | Ana | 3,414 | #4 | #13 | 11 |
| 8 | Petra | 3,291 | #4 | #24 | 11 |
| 9 | Rita | 3,120 | #2 | #3 | 9 |
| 10 | Lana | 2,925 | #6 | #30 | 11 |
| 11 | Iva | 2,877 | #10 | #18 | 11 |
| 12 | Mila | 2,679 | #4 | #6 | 9 |
The top five, name by name
Here are the five most popular girls' names of the decade, what they mean, and how each one moved over the years.
Meaning: Beloved; short form of Maria · Origin: Latin
A short form of Maria ('beloved') that became one of the most popular independent girls' names in Croatia and worldwide in the 21st century.
Meaning: Light · Origin: Latin
From Latin 'lux' ('light'). Popularized by St. Lucy of Syracuse, whose feast on 13 December is widely marked in Croatia.
Meaning: Whole, universal · Origin: Germanic
From a Germanic root meaning 'whole, universal'. It surged to become one of the most popular girls' names in Croatia in the 2000s and 2010s.
Meaning: Princess · Origin: Hebrew
From Hebrew, meaning 'princess'; Sarah was the wife of Abraham and matriarch in the Bible. It became one of the most fashionable girls' names in Croatia in recent decades.
Meaning: Victory; short form of Veronika · Origin: Greek
From Greek 'nike' ('victory'); also a short form of Veronika. A fashionable short name in contemporary Croatia.
About the data
The figures here come from the Croatian Bureau of Statistics (Državni zavod za statistiku), which publishes the most frequent newborn names each year. Our dataset covers 2015–2025 for Croatia and tracks the top names per year (470 name-year records in total).
A note on scope: because the source lists the most popular names each year (not every name ever given), the yearly totals here reflect the leading names rather than all births. Rankings are within girls' names for each year, and ties share a position. In Imenko, every one of these names comes with its full meaning, origin, name-day and popularity history.
