How we work
Methodology
This is the path every page takes, from the list of names to the published text: where the numbers come from, how meanings are researched and how we check the result.
Step by step
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1. The list of names
The site includes every spelling recorded for at least 1,000 people in the 2010 or the 2022 IBGE Census. Today that is 3,941 pages.
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2. Variant groups
Spellings that may be the same name are grouped by mechanical rules: K/C, Y/I, TH/T, doubled letters, silent H and final Z/S (Kauã and Cauã, Thiago and Tiago). Each group is reviewed during writing and checking; a spelling that is not the same name is removed from the group.
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3. The IBGE numbers
Each page receives the 2022 Demographic Census data for that spelling, copied without rounding or estimation.
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4. Research and writing
Artificial intelligence writing agents research and write each name following a written specification: they open the sources, record the link to each one and give a meaning only when the source confirms it.
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5. Independent check
A second AI agent, independent of the first, reopens every cited source, corrects or removes what the source does not support and searches again when a documented meaning was left out.
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6. Automatic checks
A validator checks every entry: a meaning only with a source, numbers identical to IBGE's, Brazilian Portuguese and no real person mentioned.
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7. Spot-check sample
A random sample is checked again, independently. In the pilot sample of 30 entries there was no serious error; 4 had a moderate error, and all were corrected.
The IBGE data
The main source is the IBGE 2022 Demographic Census, in the *Nomes no Brasil* survey: total people per name, distribution by decade of birth, sex, median age and states. We use this data through a compilation of the public IBGE API made by Gabriel Lobo, IBGE Nomes no Brasil 2022, published under the CC BY 4.0 license. The 2010 Census totals, shown for comparison, come from the open mirror datasets-br/prenomes. When the 2022 Census does not publish the count by sex for a spelling, we use the 2010 counts from the dataset Gênero dos Nomes, from Brasil.IO (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How to read the numbers
- First name only: IBGE counts only the first word of the name: someone named Maria Eduarda is counted under Maria.
- People alive in 2022: The census counts the people recorded in 2022, grouped by the decade in which they were born. It is not a count of babies registered in each decade.
- Before 1940: IBGE combines everyone born before 1940 into a single group, which is the first bar in the chart.
- Data not released: IBGE does not release small counts. In those cases the page shows “data not released”, never zero.
- Named source: Every popularity figure states the census it comes from: “Source: IBGE, 2022 Demographic Census”.
More about the data
The guide how to read the IBGE data explains in more detail what these numbers show and what they do not show.
Meaning sources
| Source | What it is used for |
|---|---|
| English Wiktionary (en.wiktionary.org) | Etymology of the name in Portuguese and in the language of origin (Hebrew, Latin, Greek, Old Tupi, Germanic languages) |
| *Dicionário de Nomes em Uso no Brasil* (dicionariodenomesdobrasil.com.br) | Etymology and formation of names used in Brazil, including names built from elements (Valdi- + -nei) |
| Behind the Name (main entries only) | Origin and meaning of names from many languages |
| Michaelis, Aulete and Priberam | Names that are also common words, such as Aurora or Pérola, and the origin of those words |
| Strong's Concordance (Blue Letter Bible, Bible Hub) | A supplement for biblical names in Hebrew and Greek |
Names without a documented meaning
Many names used in Brazil have no meaning established in reliable sources, especially recent names or names formed by joining others. These names stay published, with what is fact: the IBGE numbers, the variants and the formation of the spelling when it is documented. Of the names on the site, 1,617 have a sourced meaning.
Text written with AI assistance
The texts are written with the help of artificial intelligence and checked against the cited sources, as described above. We do not say they were written by linguists. That is why every meaning carries a link to its source: you can check it yourself.
Last updated: .