Emilia and Noah top German list of baby names for third year
May 8, 2023
Emilia and Noah were the most popular first names for children in Germany in 2022, a survey published on Monday showed.
It's the third year in a row that these names have topped the chart, compiled by the Society for the German Language (GfdS), for girls and boys respectively.
What did the survey reveal?
Emilia was followed by Sophia/Sofia and Emma as trending girls' names, with Matt(h)eo and Mat(h)eo and Leon close to the top of the list for boys.
Behind those leaders are Emma, Mia, Hannah and Lina for girls, and Leon, Finn, Paul and Elias for boys.
Overall, the list has changed little compared to 2021, the Wiesbaden-based society said in its annual evaluation.
The language experts confirm there was a trend towards short and very short names, and there was a preference for lighter vowel sounds.
Popular first names also very often end in A, they added. There were also clear favorites when it came to the letters that begin a name, with 13 of the 20 top names starting with E, M or L.
Marie and Henry were back in the top 10, the results showed, pushing Lea and Felix out of the running. Lina, Mila and Ella as well as Emil, Luca and Luis also remained stable among the frequent children's names.
Crossborder comparisons
For the first time, the survey drew comparisons with the naming practice in neighboring German-speaking countries or regions. The greatest similarities were with Austria, which shared four of the ten most popular first names for girls and boys from the German top 10.
However, some names that are popular in Austria, such as Valentina, Maximilian and Tobias, are less en vogue in Germany.
There are also great similarities with German-speaking Switzerland, where Noah and Matteo are also in the first two boys' places. However, some names that are common in Switzerland — such as Elena, Alina, Elin and Malea as well as Nino and Leano — were rarely given in Germany.
The survey used data from 750 registry offices in Germany for its statistics, with almost a million entries of almost 70,000 different names. According to the information, more than 90% of all names assigned in Germany in 2022 were recorded by the association, which has published its list of names annually since 1977.
rc/jcg (KNA, AFP)
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