Popular Basque First Names for Boys

In this video, I'm sharing with you the Hella Basque community's top 25 most popular Basque names for boys. These first names are the most beloved of the Basque Country and the Basque diaspora in 2021. Is your name on the list? Do you know someone whose name is on the list? Leave a comment and share this video with a friend!
ALSO IN THIS SERIES:
21 Basque Baby Names for Boys: • 21 Basque Baby Names f...
21 Basque Baby Names for Girls: • 21 Basque Baby Names f...
Popular Basque First Names for Girls: • Popular Basque First N...
Popular Basque First Names for All Genders: • Popular Basque First N...
25 Common Basque Last Names: • 25 Common Basque Last ...
How To Know If Your Name Is Basque: • How To Know If Your Na...
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[@aitorgonzalez4657]

My cousin's name is Urko, two of my brother's names are Fermin and Mikel, I have a sister whose nickname is Txiki, and my name is Aitor. :) My mom really wanted us to remember where we are from.

[@zarapapazyan4580]

Aitor,your name is literally means ,,grandson of an armenian,,Ai-Հայ Tor֊Թոռ, ,

[@crnel]

Kaixo! I find it an interesting coincidence that "Shanti" (Xanti) is the Sanskrit word for "peace". Also, Manesh (Manex) is also (coincidentally?) a common name in and around India.

[@ibaiazpeitialoiti4545]

Hey! My brother's name and mine are actually here!! hehehe. What a great video, I actually know all these names and loads of people living where I do actually are named like this!

[@paulpetersen7041]

Thank you!

[@oihanguren]

Xabier is not "the Basque version" of Javier. It is an original Basque name, that has a version in Spanish (Javier). It comes from the town Xabier in Nafarroa, and this comes from Etxe-berri (new house). Great video, but some names are not pronounced (normally, at least where I live) like you've done: MAR-kel (the non-sexy version), MA-nex, LU-ken, JU-len, a-SI-er, I-ker, MI-kel (If you pronounce it like you did, it seems more like catalan: mi-QUEL). Good to see my name in the top ;)

[@HellaBasque]

Thanks for sharing. Different pronunciations in different parts of the Basque Country :) I get mine from my family.

[@3John-Bishop]

How about Ladutxe, Iturbide, Amigorena, Urbieta, Barandika, Goixerri, Txomin, Gorka.

[@asier7675]

My name is Asier, and I have heard both pronuntiations: aSIer and asiER and I don't really care about how it is pronounced 😂

[@aitorville]

That's one nice name on the first position 😜 Cool video, didn't know the Arizona name fact! To continue these videos about names, you should make a video about most common basque surnames in the US, there are a lot of them all over north and south america

[@HellaBasque]

That's a great idea! The problem is, I don't think there's anyone keeping track of the most common Basque surnames in the U.S... I'll have to do some research

[@davidfarinas5925]

My daughter is Udane and my son is Xuban

[@santgenisfashion1]

Hi there, I am a proud mother of one Imanol. I was surprised you didn’t have it on the 25 list. I agree with you this name has something… I never doubted that it was the perfect name for my son. We are from Spain, living in Chicago for a few years now. Imanol complains that here nobody is able to pronounce his name…you did it perfect! :))

[@jannebrittandersen6745]

Thank you

[@ilkerylmaz5662]

Almost have a Basque name 😁, but no, I'm a Turk, my name is pure Turkish. As you may be know we use Turkic, Arabic and Persian names. My name is actually an agglutinative name ( Turkish languages are agglutinative you know). It is İlk+er, "ilk" mean first and "er" man or soldiger. My name is often used for first male child in the family, also may be percieved as "first in war" and "first soldiger of God".

[@josebabilbao7759]

Hello from a Joseba! Surprised it wasn't up there on this list! Also, how do I nominate names in an upcoming video?

[@elisaruano7704]

And it should have been!

[@roxyaedoo]

Ibai is my favorite ❤️ rivers are so important and meaningful 😊

[@elxxurii9470]

my name is ibai jajaja and last name blanco, that means white

[@oier2995]

Nooo, my name was not in this video :(( Oier is a pretty common name... nice video btw

[@CountryWolf_TX]

That ending = dork! Too cute. Love your videos

[@memyselfi0120]

To think some these names might be among the oldest in use today. I'm personally not Basque myself, but your ancient customs and culture still facinate me.

[@noraarana4567]

Hi! Kaixo from Bizkaia!!!

[@alejandrosotomartin9720]

The name Unax is of Navarrese origin, it has as a variant Unai. Its meaning is "Shepherd of cows" or "cowboy". Unai is also considered more popular than Unax. Also, the two names mean the same thing: “Shepherd”. Although it is also said that it originates from the Basque language. It is also well known in the Basque Country, since the 1970s. In summary, Unax is the spokesperson for the Navarrese dialects. So basically the next time you wanna made a Western you must hire someone called Unax Wayne or Unax Stewart.

[@unairamos74]

good to now!

[@krakenlord3960]

I was wondering if I would find my name on this list and it is very cool that I did. I am a Luken! My dad has Basque heritage and really liked the name when he found it.

[@jonspeedgatofigueroa476]

Crazy, I thought my dad named me a mix of Spanish and English but it turns out not! Jon Antonio Figueroa-Iturralde...too cool. Jon.

[@TerrySmits]

Arkaitz means "rock" in Basque.

[@harkaitzalkiza818]

2:45 Kaixo Anne-Marie, here Harkaitz from Urnieta, near Donostia. I think you know the meaning... think about trees... you know in basque Zuhaitz means tree. (Zuhaitz also is a boy name) . It has the same ending as in Harkaitz. The ending haitz means rock. And in zuhaitz, the first part come from zur, as you know means wood. So zuhaitz, the trees are woodenrocks... And in Harkaitz the first part comes from Harri, so Harkaitz is Rock's rock... or big rock.

[@kimanael]

Yeeeaaah My name in Top 3 !

[@eimere]

I may be totally wrong. But I think Unax is a iparralde variation from Unai. And in general all the names with the "x" at the end I think are all from iparralde used long time ago and then became popular again in recent years in hegoalde. Manex, Unax, Ganix...

[@elisaruano7704]

Agree with you!

[@paulaam]

Kaixo! Arizona cames from “Aritz-ona”? Really? That’s amazing!! Thank you so much for expanding our language around the world. Besarkada haundi bat Donostitik. 😘

[@HellaBasque]

Happy to share that new fun fact with you! :D

[@crnel]

I figured that Arizona was a port-manteau of the Spanish words "Árido" (arid - like a arid desert) and "zona" (zone). But maybe this works equally well in Euskara...

[@lookoutcda]

My DNA has quite a bit of basque. I started to research and I believe my ancestors are the ones that settled in Sonora and AZ in the 1700s. My mother's last name is Encinas (oak trees) they were from Sonora. Arizona means good oak tree in Basque. On my dad's side there might be basque but I'm not sure but his last name is Franco. I've always had the feeling I had something to do with that region. I've heard there was Celtic occupation of the Basque country. I see a resemblance of their tradition dance with Celtic-irish dance ad well.

[@goku7267]

one mikel here 🙋🏼‍♂️

[@HellaBasque]

Kaixo!

[@unairamos74]

Nice to see my name at #16… it’s my birthday in December!! 😁 I always thought that Unai was simply “shepherd of cows”, or the short version “cowboy”. In Euskadi we have some reputation for being quite rebel and different, and I can confirm that! 😅 By the way, Urko is the name of a mountain that separates two towns in Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa, and I was born just under its shadow!

[@atheodorasurname6936]

What about words of Basque origin in the English language? Two are silhouette and chaparral. Also I've seen lists of words in the Ainu language of northern Japan and in a language of West Africa (forgot the name) very similar to Basque ones in sound and meaning.

[@lidesalvatierrafalque2169]

My favourite name is Eki but I also like Hodei a lot, which means cloud

[@Euskalbiker]

Well glad to see my name in the top.. well not exacly..becouse I have two name°s, the first one is not so common and is Frantses, so..my complete name is Frantses Xabier :) but people call me Xabier and my girlfriend just Xabi. Wy Frantses Xabier? Well so easy, i was born in 1973 in Bilbao and in that time Basque name's were ilegal, so they put me the same name of my father..Javier, but the guy from register by her own way put Francisco Javier, wen i finally translate my name to Basque was imposible to keep Francisco..so i chose an translation who is no easy to spell for non Basque speaker's , Ts, Tx or Tz are not easy for most of the foreing languajes including Spanish, so wen they read Frantses Xabier ..they just call me Xabier :) I give you my prefer name for Boy's, Anartz wat come's from Anai Hartza or Broder Bear, that's wy in ancient times and religion Basque's belive that Bear's were brother's or man..stand they look similar..but is a beatyful name i think no matter for Basque boy or even a native American to ;)

[@alfredogimenez334]

Eneko Jiménez, founder of the Kingdom of Navarra

[@carlosmartinmalagaortega8202]

Cool

[@glennfolau6959]

Hi, greetings from New Zealand, while we have a sizable Spanish speaking population in NZ, (mainly from Chile, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina), but I don't know of any native Basque speakers or families down here. I have a passing interest in linguistics, mainly Austronesian and Polynesian/Pasifika languages, but find the fact that Basque is unrelated to any Romance or Germanic language is amazing, and while other related languages have died out, "Basque", remains relatively strong. May it continue to thrive.

[@GoldenXBoots]

Love the name Iker 💙 as this is the name of our Dutch-Basque son. Lots of people here in the NL comment they like it. Strong name

[@ainhoamastwijk4924]

nice to see there is more than one dutch-baque family in the world. iker is beautiful btw

[@erikamoore6164]

How interesting that you translate "Inaki" as Ignatius. I was just reading a biography of St. Ignatius of Loyola in which the author says his name was Inigo, but he changed it to Ignatius because he thought Inigo sounded "too Basque."

[@mirenamondarain3802]

Arkaitz comes from the word arkaitza, that literally means boulder

[@murtzia]

I had a work college called Gaizka, when he moved to Mexico at the beginning everyone thought he was a woman (when just reading the name) It was funny when a 1.9m and 110kg guy just appeared in the faces

[@grzegorzkuderski8940]

Sounds like a female's name to a speaker of Polish too, as well as Gorka, because in general in Polish all girls' names end with "a" and most of feminine nouns end with "a". And no male's name ever ends with "a" in Polish.

[@ibaimartinez9098]

Hola. Soy el number 1🤣🤣

[@renebaradat5485]

My cousin in France married a Basque shepherd in the Pyranees named Sauver. I'm wondering if that might be a version of Xabier.

[@benatarratibel1530]

All my falmily names, Unai, Gorka, Aritz, Iker, but not mine :) Beñat is very common here to.

[@adamuppsala1931]

Jon isn't necessarily John. Jon might be short for Jonathan. Translating names must include not just the sound or the meaning of the name but also the USE in a particular community. For example, if one country has many kings with the name William then it is wrong to translate it to a name which was never used for a ruler in a different language. Also, translating names should only happen when there are risks of repetitive mispronounciation or a risk of intimidation. I love these basque names. They sound like nothing else in other languages and are easy to remember and pronounce correctly.

[@marceloorellana5726]

I use Martxelo. 😎 I named my boys Gorka and Iñaki. And three of my doggies Patxi, Maxi Zurina and Txabeli.

[@asoiafan]

My favourites are Izei, and Oihan. I love Eneko too, but I am looking for first names that are not sooo popular.

[@anle5236]

What does Izei mean?

[@dariajung8797]

Aritz mind blown

[@edurvevtx7319]

Aritz is oak tree. It has some variants: Aritza, ( my son's name) , Haritz, Haritza. It is a tree with a special meaning for us, Basque people. Symbol of our freedom

[@adroaldoribeiro4529]

Can you tell if there is any relation between the word "harkaitz" and the word "archaic"? I kinda hear a simillarity but since Basque is such an isolated language it gets difficult to trace things...

[@pintakin8253]

There's no relation between harkaitz and archaic. They do sound pretty similar but it's just a coincidence!

[@FourthMatrix]

Imanol, reminds me of the Magnet, or someone with great charisma...

[@1234smileface]

Unax and Manex sound cool

[@xabiermunos7415]

Hi. Thank you for your research. When you pronounce Julen Mikel or Iker the accent should be on the first vowel not on the last one. Otherwise it does not sound authentic. Greetings from Frankfurt.

[@murtzia]

Mine!! 😁. Imanol. Not Emmanuel so difficult to find people here in London saying correctly my name...

[@HellaBasque]

That's too bad, I would think Imanol would be one of the easier Basque names to pronounce for English speakers :/

[@murtzia]

@@HellaBasque I know! I would think that. But I think that if a foreign name is similar to other name people know. they will never update their brains...

[@mattennor9931]

Britainian ongi etorri Imanol. Folkestonen bizi naiz. Folkestone kostaldeko hiri bat da hego-ekialdean. Doverretik oso gertu dago.

[@Kirkthar]

Yes Arkaitz comes from Harkaitz, (yes it means rock, crag or boulder) and the reason is because some dialects (euskalki) do not use the letter H, the same goes for Aritz and Haritz.

[@HellaBasque]

Thank you for confirming my suspicions!

[@agent3268]

My nephews names are Imanol and Oier

[@bernardoalmeida79]

Just found out people in my family are basque! “Heitor” and “Duarte”

[@Goddesso-qn5ch]

I have the last name Urquieta wich is basque

[@LarruSketch]

My name is BEÑAT, it comes from "Bernard" and it means as brave as the bear.

[@aitorgonzalez4657]

I love that name!

[@LarruSketch]

@@aitorgonzalez4657 Your name is very elegant!

[@aithne1457]

Is it ekhi the sun goddess in the mythology?

[@noratamayo6741]

Unax means sheperd

[@overlordalvarez]

Wait, so Aritz, is Oak, and you brought up "Sturdy oak" which a sturdy tree is all dependent on it's roots. So is Aritz actually more along the lines of Raiz, which is root/roots in Spanish. So Aritz is really Roots? So Arizona is really Good Roots (OR Good Land/Soil)? Or Aritz Zona as in Zone of Roots, Area of Roots........The Land of Roots????????? Or even crazier "Land/Area of Origin" if you were to further dissect the term Roots/Raizes.....

[@overlordalvarez]

Land of that Good Good

[@avrilstacy3133]

William Khristof

[@crnel]

There's also the late Basque singer-songwriter Imanol Larzabal from Donostia (San Sebastián). kzbin.info/aero/PLFA9F857FD65A8EC9

[@xtyanncroffer2449]

MY NAME IS XTYANN ENEKO AGIKLAR. VERY CRAZY TO ME.

[@tornasoleo]

One of the greatest inventions of Arana brothers (Luis and Sabino), creators, around 1900, of Basque Nationalism (and the Ikurriña flag, for instance), was the *Egutegi Bizkaitarra* (“Biscay Calendar”), completed in 1910 by Luis de Eleizalde, calling it Deun-Ixendegi Euzkotarra (“Basque Saints Calendar”). In it, they propose, for the entire practice of *names* of saints, *invented versions* , following a specific criterion: go not to the romance form of the name but to the root of said name in its (supposed) original language , and once found, apply a kind of arbitrary phonetic rules to "Basqueize" it. That's why *you won't find anyone in history named Ander, Julen, Josu, Koldo, Markel, Gorka, Andoni, Gaizka, Unai, Iker, Joseba or Kepa ...* , among many others (and more recent ones) , before those dates. Of course, not even its inventors (Luis de Eleizalde, Luis and Sabino Arana ...) and the group of friends *(Sebastián, Ramón, Antonio, José María, Ciriaco, Toribio or Elías ...)* who constituted the first nationalist association *Euskaldun Batzokija* (Batzoki) in *1894* , when Franco was 2 years old, so... he hardly had something to do with that, as is often heard out there.

[@1234smileface]

So Unai is a shepherd?

[@tmalkovych]

As a linguist, I am pretty excited about Eneko because we here in Ukraine have so many last names ending with “-enko” (Ivanenko, Petrenko, etc.) And while Eneko means “my little one” in Euskera, the ending “-enko” means “the son of (a father)” in Ukrainian, so it is also implying a “my little one”, as in “little son of a father”. Love this stunning similarity, love the Basque Country (been there just once yet but it was so cool there), and love the name Eneko! Thanks for the video! :)

[@HellaBasque]

Very interesting connection, thanks for sharing :D

[@clarencehammer3556]

I was interested to find out the meaning of the name Iñaki because of Iñaki Gabilondo who used to be the narrator for the Spanish audio magazine Puerta del Sol. I always liked that name and I did find out years ago that it was a Basque name so when I saw the title of this video I thought I would watch to see if the name and its meaning might be in your list.

[@elisaruano7704]

Iñaki is a nickname for Iñigo. It's a family name.

[@anaibarangan4908]

@@elisaruano7704 "Princess Bride". "My name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die". Lol

[@ErosFabbriGk2026]

Unai unai unai guess it

[@jacob.basque]

santiago un basque is jagoba :)

[@cemeliah]

My maiden name is Quihuis pronounced Kiwis, and it’s Basque.

[@maiteflores5859]

Iñaki is my son’s name

[@matasietes44]

Excuse me. You forget a tipically bask name. My name. Koldo. From Koldobica. (Clodovico latin form) :)

[@Civil_twilight362]

My name is Ivan. What would be my basque name? 🙂

[@koldoascunce2706]

Koldo??????? Which by the way is my name and is the translation of Luis

[@HellaBasque]

Some people suggested it, but unfortunately Koldo didn't make the top 25. I think it's a cool name though!

[@koldoascunce2706]

@@HellaBasque 💜😘🙅🏼‍♂️

[@tanyas.3812]

IS THE BASQUE LANGUAGE MORE LIKE SPANISH FROM SPAIN, OR MORE LIKE FRENCH FROM FRANCE?

[@GoldenXBoots]

Guys, which Basque boy names can also be used for girls? 🤗

[@HellaBasque]

Topic of next week’s video! But hope someone will chime in some suggestions for you here

[@IslaAMV]

Lur for example can be used for both

[@hanaemori4885]

There are around 500 Basque names that can be used for both sexes: Amaiur, Amets (dream), Araitz, Iraitz, Bihotz (heart) , Euri (rain), Ihintz (dew), Iraultza (revolution), Zeru (heaven)...

[@darylnava6058]

.

[@jorgeruizibanez2318]

The x in basque is not pronounced with a sort of shhhh, it's more cs

[@HellaBasque]

Different Basque dialects have different pronunciations

[@jorgeruizibanez2318]

@@HellaBasque yes, but it sounds weird 4 us, anyway, i'm 45 in bizkaia and basque speakers in iparralde sounds weird too, nothing bad with this.

[@alejandrosotomartin9720]

@@HellaBasque it sounds like the sound of a whip on a horse or a cow, ks.

[@HellaBasque]

@@alejandrosotomartin9720 Different Basque dialects use different pronunciations

[@alejandrosotomartin9720]

@@HellaBasque Trust me that there is not such pronounctiation because of dialects because the vocalisations that we commonly use are those of the ordinarily employed latin languages that are used by basques in both sides of the border. So basically you have two kind of basque prononctiations whenever you speak usually in spanish or you use french in the other side of the border. But not an inner variety of basque intonations that make you pronounce the X one way or the other.

[@tanyas.3812]

HEY, IF YOU HAVE Rh NEGATIVE BLOOD, DOES THAT MEAN YOU HAVE BASQUE ANCESTRY? ALSO DID THE BASQUE COME FROM ATLANTIS?

[@CatBarefield]

Sooo... Unai = cowboy? 😃

[@unairamos74]

yes!

[@overlordalvarez]

Bruh, I'm learning so much by learning names first. SO HOLD UP, you said "Iker" is male for "Ikerne" which you said means "Visitacion" WHICH HONESTLY, IKERNE LOOKS/SOUNDS LIKE INCARNATE, which could only mean they were so wise that they knew Incarnation was just you revisiting (Or a type of visitation) wherever you incarnate?????!?!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!

[@akerbeltz9193]

I think markel would sound better márkel. Unax arcaica Unai cowboy. Arkaitz :rock Same mánex. Månex? Jülen Eneko}eicnicus}ignicus}ignacius} Iñaki Ìker Mìkel Xabier}txabier}etxabier}Etxe berri Aitor} cazique In fact its wrong nowsdays the text originaly was typed down aitore but they werent Able to look It properly.

[@airfei2210]

No, Eneko with the pass of the time became Íñigo. There is confussion because of Ignacio de Loyola who changed his name (Íñigo) for this name. But they are different

[@akerbeltz9193]

@@airfei2210 u wrong darling, check if wanna It Wikipedia. Fisrtly u have to understand Evolution of lenguajes, then know how was written in that period and in which idiom, t'he tones use in one and other lenguajes to coexionate t'he changes dones through time. Unique point correct un your argument is that original was Eneko, just , not morè.

[@airfei2210]

@@akerbeltz9193 No, i'm not. It's my son's name and i hace read a lot. There's an articule if investigation in euskaltzaindia web that explain this. I'm going to look for it...

[@akerbeltz9193]

@@airfei2210 Eneko}eicnicus}ignicus}ignacius} Iñaki Maybe me little bit wrong From ignacius } Iñigo} Iñaki? But make sure t'he common root, no doubt.

[@airfei2210]

@@akerbeltz9193 No, they have diferent roots. Íñigo comes from Eneko (Enneco) Who is a name if vascones. And Iñaki comes from Ignacius that is come from latin. But due to San Ignacio de Loyola who previously called Íñigo most people think they are the same, but no. Look for "Íñigo Eneko Ignacio" on Google and you'll found a lot of pages explaining this much better than me. But thanks for your coments, I love yo argue with respect ☺️

[@adeptpeasant6161]

Your Bull Ring is distracting. MOOO!

[@kitsanderson1146]

very smart and pretty, lose the nose ring

[@robertolang9684]

its basque cultura ashy ha ha stupidity at its best

[@robertolang9684]

talking rubbish basques are not different of the rest of the iberians got the same y dna and mtdna ,

[@mannyrodriguez5453]

I was told by a retired Park Ranger that Arizona came from the Spanish; Zona Arida, which translates to Arid Zone.

[@jeskoumm]

🤠 Hey guys and gals! Jenny called...and said 8-6-7-5-3-0-9 Also, this makes sense when I really think about connections and why particular friends went to Arizona...🤦🏼 #new_number_who_dis #listed #stream_of_dark_consciousness