Over 300 000 Bulgarian 'Ivans' to Celebrate on Ivanovden

Over 300 000 Bulgarians with the most popular Bulgarian name – Ivan – and its derivatives – are set to celebrate one of Bulgaria's most popular name days – Ivanovden, i.e. the day of St. Ivan (John), on January 7, the day after Epiphany, known in the Western tradition as Distaff Day.

This has become clear from data about names in Bulgaria released Friday by the National Statistical Institute, which also indicates that more than 100 000 Bulgarians with the name 'Yordan' (Jordan) will be celebrating their name days – a unique Bulgarian tradition – on Epiphany, also known in Bulgaria as Yordanovden.

From among the kids born in 2012, 2 700 will celebrate Ivanovden for the first time, while 600 will celebrate Yordanovden for the first time. This includes girls with the female versions of the names – Ivanka and Yordanka.

NSI data indicates that there more than 68 000 names in Bulgaria, 30 000 of which male, and 38 000 – female.

In addition to Ivan and Yordan, and their derivatives, another very popular name in Bulgaria is Georgi (George) - 175 000 Bulgarians are called Georgi, followed by Dimitar (131 000), Nikolay (95 000), Petar (79 000), Hristo (65 000), Alexander, Stefan, Vasil.

A total of 1.4 million men in Bulgaria, or 38.4% of the entire male population have the 20 most popular male names.

According to NSI, the most popular Muslim names in Bulgaria are Mehmed – 16 000, Ahmed – 14 000, and Mustafa – 12 000.

The most popular female name in Bulgaria, in addition to Ivanka and Yordanka, is Maria – 123 000, followed by Elena (56 000).