What were Israel's most popular baby names of 5778?

The annual statistics from the Population and Immigration Authority found a repeat winner.

Illustrative image of a newborn baby (photo credit: INGIMAGE)
Illustrative image of a newborn baby
(photo credit: INGIMAGE)
As the Jewish year heads to a close, the Population and Immigration Authority released its statistics for the past year, among them birth and death rates, and of course, the list of the most in-demand names for newborns in 5778.
As has been the case for many years, the most popular name given to newborn boys for the entire population was Muhammad. Among the Jewish population, Ariel was the winner, previously only the third-most popular name for Jewish boys. David stayed in second place, unchanged from 5777.
Surprisingly, the name Lavie took a big leap and climbed from last year’s 10th-most favored name to this year’s third.
The full list of most popular Jewish boy’s names for 5778, in descending order, was: Ariel, David, Lavie, Ori, Yosef, Eytan, Noam, Daniel, Itai and Judah.
For girls, Tamar continued its unabated
opularity and has now been the most popular name for several years running. Avigail also retained its position, being the year’s second trendiest name for girls, before Yael and Adele.
The full list of most popular Jewish girl’s names for 5778 was: Tamar, Avigail, Yael, Adele, Noa, Sara, Shira, Noyah, Esther and Taliah.
Over the last year, 168,441 babies were born in Israel, while 41,165 people died. Registered marriages totaled 61,181 in 5778, while 24,868 divorces were filed. A total of 24,496 new immigrants arrived in 5778, up from 23,770 the previous year.