Given Names in Their Catalan Form: Comarques of Catalonia

Methodology

Among residents whose given name exists in both a Catalan and a Castilian form — Josep/José, Jordi/Jorge, Carme/Carmen — the share registered under the Catalan one (Idescat Onomàstica, 2025 census). 70 pairs, about 140 names, covering roughly 28% of the population; names with no counterpart in the other language (Laia, Arnau, Marta) fall outside the calculation, and compound names are included on both sides because Spanish ones are far commoner and dropping them would inflate the Catalan figure. It is a ratio between two counted quantities, not a share of the population. It does NOT measure identity, language spoken at home, or political preference: a given name is chosen by parents, and for most living residents that choice was made decades ago, when Catalan forms were barred from the civil registry — they were not permitted until 1977. That is the figure's dominant bias and it is shown in the age-gap column: the Castilian group is older in every comarca, and where the gap approaches 25 years (Terra Alta, Baix Ebre, Montsià, Ribera d'Ebre) the figure badly understates the Catalan form. Terra Alta, for instance, ranks second in Catalonia for Catalan-language knowledge yet falls into the bottom half of this table. There is no way to correct for it: Idescat does not publish the birth-decade breakdown at comarca level. The map uses a neutral single-hue scale (light = fewer, dark = more): neither end is better.