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Sweden’s most popular baby names revealed

While Alice remained the most common name for baby girls in Sweden for the third year running, William was dethroned as the most popular boys' name for the first time in years, new statistics show.

Published: 21 January 2014 10:10 CET

Sweden's most popular baby names revealed

Last year, 903 baby girls born in Sweden were named Alice, compared to 938 Alices in 2012, according to Statistics Sweden's (SCB) annual compilation released on Tuesday.

But the name William, which enjoyed top spot for the past two years, was replaced by Lucas, which shot up from third place in 2012. Lucas was given to 935 babies in 2013, compared to 915 little Williams.

Just over a dozen points behind was Oscar, in third place, and one point behind that was Oliver (see the full top ten below).

As for the girls, Alice was followed by Maja, Elsa, and Ella.

In the top 100 list for the girls, several names cropped up for the very first time, including Hilma, Ellinor, Sally, Melina, and Nicole. For the boys, new names included Louie and Tor.

In a breakdown of counties around Sweden, Alice was the most popular name in 11 of the total 21 counties. Stockholmers preferred the letter O, with the most popular baby names in the capital Olivia and Oscar.

Top ten girls' names in 2013, with total number.

1. Alice – 903

2. Maja – 767

3. Elsa – 766

4. Ella – 700

5. Julia – 687

6. Ebba – 663

7. Alicia – 625

8. Olivia – 616

9. Alva – 607

10. Wilma – 600

Top ten boys' names in 2013, with total number.

1. Lucas – 935

2. William – 915

3. Oscar – 901

4. Oliver – 800

5. Hugo – 749

6. Charlie – 716

7. Liam – 708

8. Alexander – 694

9. Axel – 677

10. Elias – 676

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Adolf, Alexa, Greta: These are the names Germans don’t want to give their kids

File photo: dpa | Fabian Strauch

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Adolf is the least popular name for Germans to give their children.

While Adolphus was a relatively popular name in the first part of the 20th century, its association primarily with Adolf Hitler has since made it taboo.

A survey brought out by YouGov on Thursday shows that 89 percent of Germans say it is “unlikely” they would call their child Adolf, although 8 percent still say it is “likely” they would do so.

READ ALSO: What it’s like to share a name with the world’s most notorious dictator

Alexa, the name of Amazon’s virtual assistant, is also rather unpopular, with 79 percent of respondents saying they would probably not pick this as a name for their child.

Kevin, a name strongly associated with the fashion of giving children American names during the communist era in East German, is also now unpopular. Some 80 percent say they wouldn’t give their child this name.

According to a survey done in 2011, men called Kevin also have less luck in finding love online, presumably because of the negative associations of the once popular name.

For girls, Greta seems to be unpopular, with three quarters of respondents saying they wouldn’t use it as a name for their child. YouGov says that “perhaps people have the polarizing climate activist Greta Thunberg in the backs of their minds.”

Asked what they believed has the most impact on how names are chosen, the respondents said that family and ethnic background have an overwhelmingly positive influence.

Politics and current trends on the other hand were seen to have a generally negative impact on the favourability of names.

The survey also found out that Germans are generally very happy with their given names, with 84 percent voicing satisfaction and just 13 percent expressing dissatisfaction.

The results come from a representative study of 2,058 people in Germany between February 12th and February 15th.

SEE ALSO: These are Germany’s most popular baby names for 2020

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