Erling Haaland's Biggest World Cup Win? 563 Babies Named After Him in Peru

Football fandom has officially entered the birth certificate business in Peru, where Erling Haaland has become the unlikely name of choice for hundreds of newborns during the 2026 FIFA World Cup. According to Peru's National Registry of Identification and Civil Status, known as RENIEC , a total of 563 babies have been registered with names inspired by the Norwegian striker, including 468 given Haaland as a first name, 91 registered as Erling Haaland, and four ambitious families who went the whole way and named their children Erling Braut Haaland.

The craze took off after Haaland's blistering brace against Brazil in the Round of 16, a performance that knocked out the five time champions and sent Norway into a fairytale run toward the quarterfinals. RENIEC spokesperson Ivan Torres told Peruvian broadcaster Televisión Panamericana that football stars routinely shape naming trends in the country, joking that Haaland is basically Peruvian now given how thoroughly he has infiltrated local birth records. Registrations reportedly picked up steadily through the tournament and spiked sharply once Norway's underdog run gathered pace, even though the team was eventually eliminated by England in the quarterfinals.

As wild as the Haaland numbers sound, they barely register next to Peru's real football naming royalty. Lionel Messi remains the undisputed favourite, with 3,402 Peruvians carrying his name, 292 of them registered with the full Lionel Messi. Cristiano Ronaldo counts 1,185 namesakes across the country, while Spain's teenage sensation Lamine Yamal has already inspired 1,241 Peruvians to adopt his surname, an especially striking number given how new he is to the global stage. Towering above all of them, though, is Neymar , whose name has been given to a staggering 33,809 Peruvians, a scale of devotion that makes Haaland's 563 look almost modest by comparison.

The pattern reflects a broader phenomenon that resurfaces every World Cup cycle, where a single unforgettable goal or a team's surprise run can send a footballer's name straight into family conversations thousands of miles from the pitch. Norway may not have lifted the trophy, but Haaland has secured something arguably just as permanent, a small but growing generation of Peruvians who will carry his name long after this World Cup fades from memory.