Erling Haaland was already a well-established star when the World Cup got underway, but he cemented his status as a top-tier talent while leading Norway to the quarterfinals. There will undoubtedly be a spike in the number of people in Norway naming their kids after him, and you may be surprised to learn there’s already been a sizable one in Peru.
Norway is not exactly known for being a soccer powerhouse, as the 2026 World Cup marked just the fourth time the country qualified and its first appearance on the sport’s biggest stage since 1998. That tournament was also the first time it made it out of the group stage, but the squad was treated to a prompt exit by losing to France in the Round of 16.
However, all of those teams lacked one thing Norway had this year: a superstar, a box that Erling Haaland has firmly checked since taking the Bundesliga by storm as a member of Dortmund and proving he can more than hang with the best of the best after taking his talents to Manchester City.
Norway needed Haaland to step up in his World Cup debut, and he did exactly that by scoring seven goals while leading his country to the quarterfinals, where the impressive run came to an end with a 2-1 loss at the hands of England.
The run also did wonders for Haaland’s Personal Brand, as plenty of casual fans around the world were introduced to him for the first time at the World Cup; he had around 40 million followers on Instagram when it began, but that number sits at over 68 million (more than any Premier League team) as of this writing.
That includes hundreds of people in Peru who were impressed by his play to the point where they decided to name a newborn after him.
Close to 500 kids in Peru were named after Erling Haaland due to his play at the World Cup
South America is home to three countries that have won the World Cup (Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay), but Peru has historically failed to measure up to the best teams on the continent when it comes to the talent it produces.
The country’s most recent World Cup appearance came in 2018 (they failed to advance from the group stage), which marked the end of a drought stretching back to 1982. It’s also been a while since it’s boasted a veritable superstar like Teófilo Cubillas or Hector Chumpitaz, and Peruvian fans were relying on the rest of the world for entertainment when this year’s showdown kicked off.
According to EuroNews, it would appear Haaland managed to cast a bit of a spell over the country when you consider its National Registry of Identification and Civil Status says a grand total of 468 people in Peru (which is located more than 6,500 miles from Norway) now have his surname, including 91 babies that have been given his full name.
A spokesperson for the registry noted this is reflective of a trend involving popular soccer players, saying, “Different football stars serve as inspiration for Peruvians to register their children with these names.” There are more than 3,400 people who’ve incorporated Messi into their names and a whopping 33,809 who’ve adopted Neymar’s.
I couldn’t find any information concerning how many names Christian Pulisic has inspired, but something tells me that number is a bit lower.
The post Why Have Hundreds Of People In Peru Named Their Baby After Norwegian World Cup Star Erling Haaland? appeared first on BroBible.
Why Have Hundreds Of People In Peru Named Their Baby After Norwegian World Cup Star Erling Haaland?
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