All parents who have had a child this year, pay attention! Emilia, Mia, Sophia, Emma, Lina, Mila, Ella, Leni, Clara. Noah, Matteo, Elias, Finn, Leon, Theo, Paul, Emil, Henry, Ben.
Is your child with you? If so, you’re part of the mainstream, as one might say in the music business. Because these 20 names, 10 for girls and 10 for boys, are the most popular first names in Germany this year.
The list is compiled every year by the hobby name researcher Knut Bielefeld – and jokes about names or a city that doesn’t even exist are expressly forbidden at this point. Bielefeld’s ranking is based on 250,000 names given by parents in 2022, meaning that Bielefeld has recorded around a third of all children born in Germany. Two sources are included in the evaluation: about two thirds are information from registry offices and about one third is information from maternity clinics.
The two top ten lists – let’s stick to the comparison with the music charts – are usually constant for girls’ and boys’ names over a number of years. Movement is slow. Emilia is number one for girls, as it was in 2021. When it comes to boys’ names, Noah – just ahead of Matteo – came out on top again, he was there in 2020.
There are more changes in boys’ names in the top ten than in girls’ names. A new name is rocketing up the charts. “The boy’s name Theo is a climber among the top names. It has risen steadily to the top in recent years and is now in sixth place,” says Bielefeld. But the name Ben, which has been extremely popular for years, has dropped again in the ranking. For nine years, the boy’s first name was number one until it was ousted from there in 2020. In the meantime, he can only be found in 10th place in the nationwide evaluation. “It seems to be slowly going out of fashion now and long-standing top names like Lukas or Luka are slowly disappearing from the first name lists,” says the name researcher.
Regional differences
Some regional differences are interesting: “The naming fashions are still being accepted more slowly in the south,” says Bielefeld. In the north, parents are somewhat more innovative. The evaluations for Hamburgthat there – compared to other regions – the names Bruno, Fiete, Lino, Cleo, Isabella and Lotte are often assigned. In Schleswig Holstein Enno, Jonte, Lasse, Enna, Jonna and Liv are also very popular. parents in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania often opted for Hugo, Pepe, Frieda, Merle and Thea. Typical first names for Lower Saxony are Hanno, Keno, Tammo, Hedi, Jette and Jonna.
In Bavaria Sophia and Elias are at the top of the Bielefeld name ranking. The top ten also includes names like Lukas, Felix, Maximilian, Anna, Leonie and Lina. So there are definitely differences in Bavaria to the nationwide favorites. With Mila, Ella, Leni and Clara, four extremely popular girl names in Germany are not among the top ten at all. For boys, the nationwide leader Noah in Freistaat only came in eighth, second-placed Matteo did not make it into the top ten, nor did Finn, Theo, Emil, Henry and Ben. And of course there are also Bavarian preferences: Benedikt, Ludwig, Sebastian, Franziska, Magdalena and Valentina belong to them.
In Saxony there is a noticeable accumulation of kurt. It is not possible to distil from Bielefeld’s data whether this is due to the fact that the federal state had a prime minister for a long time who responded to this first name. “It occurs very, very, very often in Saxony and not so often in the rest of Germany,” says the name researcher. There is also another new retro name: Erwin. “For years, no children were named Erwin at all. But he’s reappearing now – and I’ll be watching him,” says Bielefeld.
In Baden-Wuerttemberg Sophia and Noah are the most popular baby names. For girls, Sophia is followed by the names Mia, Emma and Lina as well as Emilia. For boys, the names Elias, Leon, Luca and Matteo are in the top five alongside Noah.
In North Rhine-Westphalia are – just like in the nationwide evaluation – Emilia and Noah at the top. In addition, the names Ali, Phil, Thilo, Elif, Aleyna and Meryem are quite common compared to the rest of Germany.
In Berlin and Brandenburg Charlotte and Oskar are the two most popular first names. For boys, Liam is second. Mathilda made fourth place among the girls. Erwin, Kurt, Otto, Erna, Holly and Lieselotte were also relatively common.