The country of Germany is located in Central Europe and bordered by nine other countries (including Poland, Switzerland, France, the Netherlands, and Denmark).
Last year, Germany welcomed roughly 739,000 babies.
What were the most popular names among these babies? We don’t know for sure, because Germany (like Japan) doesn’t release official baby name rankings. But two unofficial sets of rankings agree that Germany’s top baby names of 2022 were likely Emilia and Noah.
Here are the sources of the two sets of rankings:
- The Society for the German Language (GfdS), which obtained data from more than 750 German registry offices. This data accounts for over 92% of all the first names bestowed in Germany in 2022.
- Name researcher Knud Bielefeld, who obtained data from registry offices and maternity hospitals in 423 German cities. His data accounts for about 34% of all the babies born in Germany in 2022.
On both lists, differently spelled versions of the same name were combined.
Let’s start with the Society for the German Language (GfdS) list.
Girl Names (GfdS)
- Emilia
- Sophia/Sofia
- Emma
- Mia
- Hannah/Hanna
- Lina
- Mila
- Ella
- Clara/Klara
- Marie
Boy Names (GfdS)
- Noah
- Matteo/Mateo/Mattheo/Matheo
- Leon
- Finn
- Paul
- Elias
- Emil
- Luca/Luka
- Louis/Luis
- Henry/Henri
And now, Bielefeld’s list.
Girl Names (Bielefeld)
- Emilia
- Mia
- Sophia
- Emma
- Hannah
- Lina
- Mila
- Ella
- Leni
- Clara
Boy Names (Bielefeld)
- Noah
- Matteo
- Elias
- Finn
- Leon
- Theo
- Paul
- Emil
- Henry
- Ben
Bielefeld also noted that the boy name Nelio was on the rise thanks to German influencer Dagi Bee (birth name: Dagmar Ochmanczyk), who welcomed a son named Nelio in December of 2021.
Sources:
- “Emilia and Noah top German list of baby names for third year.” Deutsche Welle 8 May 2023.
- Die beliebtesten Vornamen 2022 – GfdS
- Logan, Olivia. “These were Germany’s top baby names in 2022.” IamExpat.com 7 Jan. 2023.
- Die beliebtesten Vornamen des Jahres 2022 – beliebte-Vornamen.de
- Births – German Federal Statistical Office
Image: Adapted from Flag of Germany (public domain)
Matteo — that’s surprising. I know Matthias is one German form of Matthew, but then I found a thread in the BTN subreddit that explained this, sort of. I still don’t know why, exactly, but at least I know when.
https://www.reddit.com/r/BehindTheName/comments/szgtho/behind_germanys_top_baby_names_emilia_and_matteo/
It may just be due to the growing international trendiness of Matteo/Mateo. In 2021, either Matteo or Mateo was a top-20 name in various European countries, including Italy, Austria, Belgium, Sweden, Croatia, Spain, and Switzerland.
Similar to the way Liam has overtaken William (and local forms of William) in several countries recently.
But this is just a guess. If anyone out there has a better explanation, please leave a comment!
That reminds me – – I was looking at a list of babies born last month and one of them was named Liam William. Stupidity should be painful. At least they’re both nice names, I guess; I’d rather be Liam William than Remington Colt or Maverick Bentley, that’s for sure.