Overview
- Peru’s civil registry, RENIEC, recorded 468 newborns given the surname Haaland and 91 registered with the full name Erling Haaland during the World Cup.
- RENIEC officials said most of those registrations came after the tournament began and climbed as Norway advanced to the quarterfinals.
- Erling Haaland scored seven goals and helped lead Norway to its first World Cup quarterfinal, a performance cited by media as driving the naming surge.
- Peruvian law gives parents wide latitude to choose names so long as they are not offensive, and RENIEC data show similar past booms for players such as Neymar, Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.
- The trend shows a cultural habit of honoring star players through names and could shape everyday life for those children but so far has produced no reported legal challenges to the registrations.