Bautista
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Meaning
"baptist", from Latin Baptista, ultimately from Greek bapto, "to dip"
The story
On Saint John’s day in Venezuela, the saint’s image goes down to the river. Communities carry it in procession and immerse it, recalling John’s baptism of Jesus in the Jordan. The action brings Bautista close to its oldest word: this Spanish name and French Baptiste share Latin Baptista behind them, ultimately reaching Greek bapto, to dip. Traditionally associated with John the Baptist, the name belongs to a celebration with its own Venezuelan history. The festive cycle took shape among enslaved Afro-Venezuelan communities in the eighteenth century, bringing Catholic and sub-Saharan African traditions together. Drumming, dancing and storytelling accompany the processions. Participants describe the celebrations as a way to remember enslaved ancestors and express cultural resistance and freedom; families, community groups and schools pass the practices on. The water recalls a biblical baptism, while the people keeping the festival carry a history of their own.
How popular is Bautista around the world?
In the United States, Bautista is on the Social Security birth record for 2020 to 2025. In Argentina, 6,874 newborns were given the name Bautista in 2024.
Bautista is on the official records of the United States, Argentina, Montevideo, Chile, Spain and Mexico City.
United States
on record
In the United States, Bautista is on the Social Security birth record for 2020 to 2025.
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Bautista has stayed rare in US records the whole time: no peak decade to name.
Births with a Social Security record. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration
Argentina
1 in 96
In Argentina, 6,874 newborns were given the name Bautista in 2024.
share of that year’s name registrations
Given-name components of births in Argentina 2012–2024; national cells are lower bounds and no sex split is published. Source: RENAPER (Argentina), Dirección Nacional de Población, given names 2012-2024
Montevideo City
1 in 270 · 2011
In Montevideo, 89 boys named Bautista were born in 2011, spelling variants counted together.
share of that year’s births on record
Births in the department of Montevideo (not all of Uruguay) by first name and year of birth, 1940–2011, from the city’s civil registry, which writes names in capitals, almost always without accents; counted as spelling groups (accent and punctuation variants merged), nothing is withheld at source, and 2012 is excluded as a partial year. Source: Servicio de Registro Civil, Intendencia de Montevideo, Partidas de Registro Civil de Montevideo (Licencia de Datos Abiertos - Uruguay); 2012 dropped as partial
Chile
1 in 2,700
In Chile, 67 boys were registered as Bautista in 2021, every accent spelling counted together.
share of that year’s name registrations
First-name registrations with Chile’s civil registry by year of registration, 1920–2021, counted as spelling groups (Sofía, Sofia and Sofìa are one name, shown with its most-registered spelling); the registry withholds nothing, nametree keeps the groups that reached 5 registrations in some year, and shares divide by every registration of the year. Source: Servicio de Registro Civil e Identificación (Chile) via the guaguas package, first-name registrations 1920-2021
Spain
1 in 18,000
In Spain, 2,470 residents are named Bautista, the 711th most common name among men, with a mean age of 60 years.
Residents of Spain on 1 January 2025. Spain publishes how old a name’s living bearers are, not a birth series, so there is no year chart. Source: INE (Spain), Censo de Población anual, 1 January 2025
Mexico City City
1 in 120,000
In Mexico City, there was 1 registration of Bautista in 2022.
The count never rose above 3 in a year, too few to chart.
Civil-registry acts in Mexico City by registration year. Counts are lower bounds (names under 6 in a month and borough are removed at source) and count name-instances, not people; compound names are split, so “Maria Jose” counts under each part. 2023, a partial extract through 3 Mar with no cell on record for this name, is excluded. Source: Registro Civil of Mexico City, open data portal, registered given names 2000-2023
England and Wales
last on record 2017
Bautista is not on the 2025 record for England and Wales, where spellings under 3 in a year are withheld at source.
The count never rose above 3 in a year, too few to chart.
Birth registrations in England and Wales (not the whole UK); exact spellings are counted separately, and any spelling under 3 in a year is withheld at source. Source: Office for National Statistics, baby names in England and Wales
South Australia
last on record 2004
Bautista is not on the 2017 record for South Australia, whose registry publishes every name given that year.
The count never rose above 1 in a year, too few to chart.
Births registered in South Australia (not all of Australia) by first name and year of registration, 1944–2017, from the state’s Births, Deaths and Marriages registry, which publishes every name down to a single birth in capitals; a spelling its export repeats inside a year is counted once, and from 2018 only a top 100 is published, so the series ends at 2017. Source: Consumer and Business Services (South Australia), popular baby names
Not on the record in Puerto Rico, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand and Scotland: those registries withhold small counts, so rare uses may sit below their floors.
Not on the France record: nametree keeps spellings that reached 20 births in some year, so rarer uses are not shown.
Keep exploring
The Bautista deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Bautista truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Bautista fits with your family’s names and surname.
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