John, Dave, Sue and Margaret – British expat names most popular in Spain

If you live in Spain, chances are you know a John, Dave, Sue or Margaret.

There are some obscure studies out there in the world of ‘Market Research’, but a recent one looking into the most popular names among Spain’s expat population must surely rank up there as one of the oddest…

A new set of data recently released by Spain’s Office of National Statistics (INE), however, looked into this very topic and found that names from Morocco and Romania dominate the charts.

According to the INE, there are more than 40,000 Mohameds living in Spain as expats – the most common male name. For females it is Fatima, of which there are more than 18,000 living as expats across Spain. Other popular male names are Ahmed, Said, Gheorghe, Vasile and Rachid, while for women there are thousands of Marias, Elenas, Marianas and Mihaelas.

The top 50 list of most common expat names also features a fair smattering of Ukranian, Bulgarian, Russian and Italian names, while – as you would expect – British-sounding names are also quite common.

The most popular male name among British expats is, perhaps unsurprisingly, John, of which there are ‘officially’ 1,757 residing in Spain. Next up is David (or Dave, or Big Dave, etc.) at 1,662, while the most popular British women’s name is Susan (916) and then Margaret (892).

This data was drawn from INE statistics that suggest there are 4,925,089 foreign nationals registered in Spain, although the unofficial number is thought to be much higher.

According to this data, though, it puts Moroccans as the largest migrant group, followed by Romanians and then the British.

So if you were thinking of buying a home in Spain or moving to the Costa del Sol but were not sure if you would fit in, there is always one simple solution – change your name to Dave, John, Sue or Margaret, and you’ll be sure to get on just swimmingly.