Two unofficial lists of the top baby names in Germany are now out.
According to Knud Bielefeld of the blog Beliebte Vornamen, the most popular baby names last year were Mia and Ben.
According to the Gesellschaft für deutsche Sprache (Association for German Language), though, the most popular baby names last year were Sophie/Sofie and Maximilian.
Here are Bielefeld’s top 10 girl names and top 10 boy names of 2013:
| Girl Names | Boy Names |
|---|---|
| 1. Mia 2. Emma 3. Hanna/Hannah 4. Sophia/Sofia 5. Anna 6. Lea 7. Emilia 8. Marie 9. Lena 10. Leonie | 1. Ben 2. Luca/Luka 3. Paul 4. Jonas 5. Finn/Fynn 6. Leon 7. Luis/Louis 8. Lucas/Lukas 9. Maximilian 10. Felix |
And here are the GfdS’s top 10 girl names and top 10 boy names of 2013:
| Girl Names | Boy Names |
|---|---|
| 1. Sophie/Sofie 2. Marie 3. Sophia/Sofia 4. Maria 5. Mia 6. Emma 7. Hannah/Hanna 8. Anna 9. Emilia 10. Johanna | 1. Maximilian 2. Alexander 3. Paul 4. Luca/Luka 5. Ben 6. Luis/Louis 7. Elias 8. Leon 9. Lukas/Lucas 10. Noah |
So what’s the difference between these lists? Bielefeld focused on first names only, while the GfdS included all given names (firsts + middles) on the same list.
That said…this year, for the first time, the GfdS issued a two extra mini-lists. One is first names only, the other is middle names only.
Here are their most popular first names (nearly identical to Bielefeld’s list):
| Girl Names | Boy Names |
|---|---|
| 1. Mia 2. Emma 3. Hanna/Hannah | 1. Ben 2. Paul 3. Luca/Luka |
And here are their most popular middle names:
| Girl Names | Boy Names |
|---|---|
| 1. Sophie/Sofie 2. Marie 3. Maria | 1. Alexander 2. Maximilian 3. Elias |
If you’d like to see the 2012 lists, here they are: GfdS, Bielefeld.
Sources: Ben and Mia – Germany’s top baby names, Die beliebtesten Vornamen 2013
Image: Adapted from Flag of Germany (public domain)
