Baby Name: Mathilde

The country of Denmark, which is located in northern Europe and shares a border with only Germany, consists of two-thirds of the Jutland peninsula plus an archipelago of hundreds of islands.

Last year, Denmark welcomed 63,473 babies. The most popular names among these babies? Alma and Oscar.

Here are Denmark’s top 50 girl names and top 50 boy names of 2021:

Girl Names

1. Alma, 482 baby girls
2. Ida, 474
3. Clara, 437
4. Ella, 436
5. Olivia, 428
6. Freja, 425
7. Emma, 420
8. Luna, 411
9. Agnes, 410
10. Nora, 398
11. Karla, 393 (tie)
12. Sofia, 393 (tie)
13. Anna, 387
14. Ellie, 370
15. Asta, 356 (tie)
16. Lily, 356 (tie)
17. Alberte, 353
18. Frida, 313
19. Josefine, 306
20. Laura, 299
21. Esther, 297
22. Ellen, 287
23. Astrid, 267
24. Isabella, 259
25. Saga, 245
26. Aya, 242 – Anglicized form of Aija.
27. Lærke, 237 – means “lark” in Danish.
28. Marie, 223
29. Liva, 220
30. Hannah, 219
31. Mathilde, 214
32. Maja, 213 (tie)
33. Vilma, 213 (tie)
34. Merle, 209
35. Victoria, 205
36. Mille, 199
37. Liv, 190
38. Emily, 189
39. Sofie, 183
40. Leonora, 178 (tie)
41. Molly, 178 (tie)
42. Lea, 176
43. Andrea, 175
44. Gry, 172 – (pronounced groo, roughly) means “dawn” in Danish and Norwegian.
45. Emilie, 167
46. Vera, 161
47. Rosa, 156
48. Alva, 153
49. Elina, 148
50. Johanne, 147

Boy Names

1. Oscar, 562 baby boys
2. Karl, 555
3. William, 520
4. Oliver, 494
5. Alfred, 470
6. August, 462
7. Valdemar, 458
8. Malthe, 452
9. Arthur, 451
10. Emil, 447
11. Lucas, 439
12. Aksel, 435
13. Noah, 427
14. Victor, 395
15. Elias, 375
16. Theo, 355
17. Otto, 340
18. Viggo, 319
19. Magnus, 306
20. Felix, 301
21. Elliot, 300
22. Nohr, 293 – related to the Germanic word for “north.”
23. Liam, 291 (tie)
24. Matheo, 291 (tie)
25. Anton, 289
26. Hugo, 267
27. Loui, 264
28. Alexander, 254
29. Theodor, 249
30. Frederik, 248
31. Konrad, 244
32. Lauge, 243 – based on the Old Norse word félagi, meaning “companion, partner.”
    • The Old Norse word félag (“fellowship, partnership”), which referred to a joint financial venture during the Viking Age, gave rise to both the Old Norse word félagi and the modern English word fellow.
33. Anker, 241
34. Albert, 235
35. Johan, 215
36. Storm, 209
    • About half as many U.S. baby boys (105) were given the English word Storm as a name last year.
37. Adam, 199
38. Milas, 197
39. Erik, 195 (tie)
40. Pelle, 195 (tie)
41. Vincent, 189
42. Villads, 185 – form of Willihad.
43. Villum, 183 – form of Vilhelm (William).
44. Marius, 182
45. Christian, 181
46. Holger, 174 – derived from an Old Norse name that was comprised of elements meaning “small island” and “spear.”
47. Ebbe, 169
48. Walter, 168
49. Luca, 167
50. Benjamin, 162

In 2020, the top two names were Alma and Alfred.

P.S. The country of Denmark is part of the larger Kingdom of Denmark, which includes the two autonomous countries of Greenland and the Faroe Islands. I’ll post the rankings for both later this week…

Sources: Names of newborn children – Statistics Denmark, Denmark – Wikipedia, Nordic Names, Behind the Name, Félag – Wikipedia

Image: Adapted from Flag of Denmark (public domain)