Names of Bulgaria BG

NSI — most common surnames (annual press release) records Иванова as the commonest surname in Bulgaria; the names that most distinguish Bulgaria from the rest of the world are Димитър, Georgiev and Георги.

Written in Bulgarian.

Population
7M
Official registers
6
Name forms recorded
61K
ABuilt from 6 official registers (2023), 61,052 name forms in our corpus, 2 cited works.

Official registers for given names and surnames, plus a written account of the naming system.

The account of the naming system rests on encyclopaedia and genealogy sources; it has not yet been checked against onomastic literature.

fewerlarger share
Where the names most characteristic of Bulgaria are borne outside it — the same spelling, counted in our record corpus. Shares are of all bearers of those names anywhere, Bulgaria included.

How names work in Bulgaria

Names in Bulgaria follow one naming tradition. Its structure, its given-name and surname stock, how to address someone and what trips software up are set out on its own page.

The most common names in Bulgaria

Counts children born in the year · authority tier 1
NSI — popular newborn given names (annual press release), 2023 — 11 given names counted over children born that year, girls only, as the register publishes them.
#NameBearers recordedOur rank
1Виктория58981
2Мария537—
3София480—
4Никол442—
5Рая397—
6Александра329—
7Габриела329—
8Йоана302—
9Елена288—
10Дария283—
14Симона244—

Where the two lists disagree

12 of NSI — popular newborn given names (annual press release)'s top 13 given names sit five or more places away in our record corpus. Neither ranking is wrong; they count different people.

NSI — popular newborn given names (annual press release) 2023Across all recordsалександър: 1 → 9 · ranks lower across all records1. александър9георги: 2 → 12. георги1калоян: 3 → not ranked · not in our corpus’s top ranks for this country3. калоянnot rankedмартин: 4 → 94 · ranks lower across all records4. мартин94теодор: 5 → not ranked · not in our corpus’s top ranks for this country5. теодорnot rankedникола: 6 → 21 · ranks lower across all records6. никола21иван: 7 → 2 · ranks higher across all records7. иван2борис: 8 → not ranked · not in our corpus’s top ranks for this country8. борисnot rankedдимитър: 9 → 3 · ranks higher across all records9. димитър3виктор: 10 → not ranked · not in our corpus’s top ranks for this country10. викторnot rankedданиел: 11 → not ranked · not in our corpus’s top ranks for this country11. даниелnot rankedниколай: 13 → 4 · ranks higher across all records13. николай4кристиян: 15 → not ranked · not in our corpus’s top ranks for this country15. кристиянnot ranked
Hover a line for what is available to explain that row.
NSI — popular newborn given names (annual press release), 2023 on the left; every record we hold for Bulgaria on the right. A dashed line means the name is not in our top ranks for this country at all.

The register counts one population in one year — everyone it enumerates, once. Our corpus counts records: historical registers going back decades, the diaspora, business and place records, and several generations of births. A name that was common two generations ago outranks a name common today; a name whose spelling scatters across sources (diacritics dropped, transliterated differently) loses ground, because only its dominant spelling is ranked.

Characteristic of Bulgaria

Not the most common names — the most distinctive ones. A name appears here when Bulgaria holds a larger share of its bearers than the world does, weighted by how much of the country's whole name distribution it accounts for.

ДимитърГеоргиJamПетърИванХристоКрасимирPlamenТодорАтанасНиколайЙорданИвайлоСтоянDesislavaПетяRumenНиколаИванкаGerganaVeselinEmilDanielaPetkoЙорданкаTsvetanBorislavРосицаVentsislavВалентинAyşeKostadinRadoslavВасилTeodoraMilenAsenIliyanРумянаSvetoslavMilenaMitkoMehmetMiroslavД-РLyubomirKrasimiraПенкаЦветелинаАнгелMehmedSimeonEmineVanyaIvelinaZhivkoIvoStanimirSvetlaStefka
Sized by how much of the difference between Bulgaria's name distribution and the world's this name accounts for. Hover for its share here against its share worldwide.(measured from records)

Over time

МарияИванкаЕленаЙорданкаДаниела20182023113,010
NSI — most common given names in the population (annual press release), 2018–2023 (6 years). The line is that register's own figure for each year — not a total across registers, which would count the same people twice. The publisher labels this series “stock”.

Up to five names at a time.

Scripts & spelling

Names in Bulgaria are written in Latin (80%), Cyrillic (19%) and Hebrew (1%), measured over the spellings our corpus records for this country.

Ivanovsurname(measured from records)
Georgievsurname(measured from records)
Георгиgiven name(measured from records)Georgi
Иванgiven name(measured from records)Ivan
Dimitrovsurname(measured from records)
The best-attested names in Bulgaria, in the spelling our records use there. Where a Latin spelling is also attested it is shown beneath — a spelling from the corpus, not a machine romanisation.

Countries whose names look alike

Measured as the overlap between each country's top 300 given-name forms, weighted by how common each is — the fuzzy-set approach of Lauc (2024), on a truncated inventory.

Registers & sources

Official registers

Cited works

Behind this page's own account — its one-line answer, its explanation of why the rankings differ, and the notes on its registers. Each naming tradition cites its own sources on its page. Not yet checked against onomastic literature.

About this data

Official figures are reproduced from the register named beside them, at the year named beside them, and are never combined across registers. The "across all records" ranking counts records in our own corpus — historical registers, the diaspora, business and place records — and is not a population count. Bearer estimates are omitted where a name accounts for more than a quarter of a country's records, because the estimate is not defensible there. Names listed by reference works and licensed name dictionaries are cited as attesting a name; their figures are not published.

Data snapshot: 2026-10-09.

Questions

What is the most common given name in Bulgaria?
Александър, according to NSI — popular newborn given names (annual press release) (2023), with 828 bearers recorded among boys.
What is the most common surname in Bulgaria?
Иванова, according to NSI — most common surnames (annual press release) (2022), with 131,184 bearers recorded among girls.
Why do sources disagree about the commonest name in Bulgaria?
Because they count different people. NSI — popular newborn given names (annual press release) (2023) counts one population once, and its commonest given name is Александър. Our corpus counts every record we hold — historical registers, the diaspora, decades of births — and its commonest is Георги. Both are on this page, each with its denominator.

Cite this page: Mondonomo, “Names of Bulgaria”, https://mondonomo.ai/names/BG (data snapshot 2026-10-09). Official figures from NSI — popular newborn given names (annual press release); NSI — most common surnames (annual press release).