Brazil study: how many kids are named Riquelme, Messi or Maradona | OneFootball

A study in Brazil revealed that Juan Román Riquelme, current president of Boca and a symbol of the entity due to his past as a footballer, leads the use of his surname as a first name in the neighboring country.

The results of the research revealed surprising data that demonstrate the deep connection between football, especially the World Cups, and the lives of Brazilians. To the point of inspiring the names of thousands of people across the country. It is worth noting that the research only refers to the first name or surname separately. Therefore, it does not apply to compound names like Cristiano Ronaldo, Bruno Henrique, Diego Souza, and Gabriel Barbosa, for example.

Among the various names, the most popular is Juan Román Riquelme. According to the IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics), there are 25,942 people with the name Riquelme in Brazil. This does not include variants like Ryquelme, which were registered 338 times.

The ultimate idol of Boca Juniors, the club of which he is president, the Argentine star is already known by 0.01% of the Brazilian population, with an average age of 12 years.

The growth is remarkable, as between the early and late 1990s, there were only 228 people registered with the name Riquelme in the country. That figure skyrocketed to 12,220 between 2000 and 2009, the golden era of the Argentine player, three-time Libertadores champion with Boca Juniors in 2000, 2001, and 2007.

The Riquelme boom overshadowed, for example, Neymar. Currently, in Brazil, there are 2,443 people registered with the player's name, 50 of them women. This figure was less than 100 before the star made his professional debut with Santos in 2009.

Furthermore, it is worth noting that the average age of people named Neymar across the country is just 11 years. This reinforces the magnitude of the influence of the number 10 of the Brazilian national team in the last three World Cups.

The name Neymar is registered in all 27 Brazilian states. Minas Gerais is the state with the highest number of people with this name (372), followed by São Paulo (340), Amazonas (239), and Bahia (232).

On the other hand, in Brazil, there are only 363 people named Messi and 128 named Maradona. If we consider surnames, these figures are 755 and 447, respectively.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇪🇸 here.