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Top 20 Danish baby names for boys and girls

If you are a parent-to-be and are thinking about giving your child a name with a Scandinavian twist, we have just the list for you. But be prepared for a few surprises.

Published: 15 July 2016 15:39 CEST
Top 20 Danish baby names for boys and girls
Photo: Iris/Scanpix
Sofia and William are Danes' favourite baby names… again.
 
William is the most popular name registered for new baby boys in Denmark for the seventh year in a row, while Sofia retakes the top spot for newborn girls after dropping back to second place in 2014.
 
Nineteen out of 1000 newborn girls in Denmark were given the name Sofia last year, reports Statistics Denmark. New entries on to the list of the 50 most popular names were Gry (the Danish equivalent of Dawn) and Silje.
 
Freja, the second-placed girl's name, was most popular in South and North Jutland, but Sofia's popularity in the capital saw it take the top postition overall.
 
Jumping from number 50 to number 26 on the list, Lily was the name that made the biggest jump in popularity.
 
For boys, William continued its dominance, with 19 out of 1000 babies given the name, making it the most popular for the seventh year in a row.
 
Names like Viggo and Silas as well as the traditionally Norse name Thor made first-time appearances in the Statistics Denmark top 50.
 
Could the presence of Frederik and Caroline on the list be due to the popularity of heir to the throne Crown Prince Frederik and Tennis star Caroline Wozniacki? Photo: Liselotte Sabroe/Scanpix
 
More common names like Andreas, Nikolaj and Jonas disappeared from the top 50 altogether.
 
Parents-to-be looking hoping for inspiration for the list will find the top 20 of both lists to contain a mixture of typical Danish names (Sofie, Christian, Magnus), popular modern choices (Olivia, Alma, Oscar) and names that sound rather more old-fashioned to English ears than to Danish ones (Agnes, Alfred).
 
There are also options for those who fancy braving tricky Danish pronunciation (Maja, Villads and Malthe).
 
Top 20 Danish girl's names in 2015:
 
  • Sofia
  • Freja
  • Ella
  • Alma
  • Anna
  • Emma
  • Laura
  • Clara
  • Ida
  • Isabella
  • Karla
  • Maja
  • Victoria
  • Alberte
  • Josefine
  • Sofie
  • Agnes
  • Liva
  • Olivia
  • Caroline

Top 20 names for Danish boys in 2015:

 

  • William
  • Noah
  • Lucas
  • Emil
  • Oliver
  • Oscar
  • Victor
  • Malthe
  • Alfred
  • Carl
  • Frederik
  • Elias
  • Magnus
  • Valdemar
  • Villads
  • Alexander
  • Christian
  • August
  • Johan
  • Felix
 
 
 
 
 

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Swedish woman applied to change name to ‘Nazi’

A 28-year-old woman in Sweden has been refused permission to change her first name to 'Nazi' after the authorities deemed the name 'unsuitable', a regional newspaper reports.

Published: 11 September 2018 09:26 CEST
Swedish woman applied to change name to 'Nazi'
According to Skånska Dagbladet, the name was rejected because of its association with Germany's National Socialist Party. Photo: Bengt Olof Åradsson/Wikimedia Commons
The woman, from the village of Tyringe, which is known more for its medieval church than far-right activity, made the application earlier this year. 
 
Ingegerd Widell, the development officer at the Swedish Tax Agency in charge of registering new names, said she could not confirm the story without knowing the name of the woman.  
 
“I would be extremely surprised if anyone would get that name,” she said. 
 
The Swedish Tax Agency, which handles Swedes' applications to change their name, only accepts new names if they do not cause problems for the holder or cause discomfort to others. 
 
According to the agency, before approving a name, its officials check if it could “cause offence, be presumed to cause discomfort for the individual or for some other reason are unsuitable”. 
 
According to the Skånska Dagbladet newspaper, which first reported on the case, the application was rejected because “the word Nazi is a short form of National Socialism and is associated with supporters of Nazism”. 
 
 
Last year, the agency turned down a 26-year-old man who wanted to change his first name to 'Prince', on the grounds that it was “not a word associated with a name”, and in 2011 a man's bid to have 'His Majesty' added to his name was turned down because it could lead to “misunderstandings”.
 
Another man did get to add 'King' to his name – an idea he came up with after a long night out – six years ago. But the Stockholmer, King Oliver, told The Local in 2016 that his family “still calls (him) Oliver”.
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