The FIFA World Cup is not just about goals, upsets and new heroes; it also finds its way into birth records. While Erling Haaland was making headlines with his performances for Norway, Peru was recording a notable increase in babies being named after the striker, further proof of how the tournament leaves a cultural imprint that reaches far beyond the stadiums.
According to Peru's National Registry of Identification and Civil Status (RENIEC), 468 Peruvians already bear the surname Haaland, and a further 91 children have been registered with his full name, Erling Haaland.
Registrations have picked up since the start of the tournament and surged further after Norway's historic run to the quarter-finals, where they were eventually knocked out. Haaland has been one of the standout players of this World Cup, scoring seven goals, including a decisive strike against Brazil in the knockout stage, before his side's exit.
Haaland is Norwegian... and now Peruvian
RENIEC spokesman Iván Torres told Peruvian broadcaster Televisión Panamericana that football stars tend to set the trend when it comes to choosing names for newborns in Peru. With the profession's characteristic sense of humour, he added: "Haaland is Peruvian too."
The joke, playful as it is, neatly captures how quickly the Manchester City forward's popularity has spread across South America, despite the scant footballing tradition linking Norway and Peru.
The Norwegian's pulling power, however, has not shifted the established favourites. The Civil Registry lists 3,402 Peruvians called Messi, 292 of them officially registered as Lionel Messi, while Brazil's Neymar remains the undisputed leader with 33,809 namesakes, the most popular given name of footballing origin in the country.
Cristiano Ronaldo has 1,185 namesakes, and Lamine Yamal, Spain's young prodigy, has already prompted 1,241 Peruvians to adopt his surname as a first name. These figures show just how far football stars have moved beyond being merely sporting icons and have become cultural brands capable of infiltrating family life.
Major international tournaments have long been spawning these quirky naming fashions, but few events amplify the phenomenon like the World Cup: a memorable goal or an inspiring story is enough to insert a footballer into family conversations thousands of kilometres away.
The name Haaland has been one of the standout names of the 2026 edition and, although Norway bowed out in the quarter-finals, the striker has secured something as lasting as a trophy: a place on hundreds of birth certificates that, long after the winner is known, will go on recalling the summer when the Norwegian became one of the most recognisable faces in world football.
