Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

NAMES

These are Denmark’s most popular baby names

Ida and William are the names parents in Denmark chose most often when naming their newborns in 2018.

Published: 11 July 2019 10:05 CEST
These are Denmark’s most popular baby names
Photo: londondeposit/Depositphotos

A list of the country’s most popular names is released each July by national stats agency Statistics Denmark, once all the births from the prior year have been registered.

Since parents have a six-month period in which they can register their baby’s name, the list is not finalized into halfway through the following year.

This year, William and Ida are again the most popular names, retaining their spots at the top of the list from 2017.

2018 saw 15 in every 1,000 baby girls named Ida, while 19 out of every thousand boys were called William.

Ida was especially popular in the Southern Denmark and Central Jutland regions. In the Capital region, Ella was the most popular name for girls, while Sofia was most popular in the rest of Zealand. In North Jutland, the Nordic name Freja was top of the list for girls.

A similar trend was apparent for boys’ names, with William the most popular in two Jutland regions – Central and North Jutland – while Noah and Malthe were the favourites in Zealand and South Denmark respectively.

Oscar was the most-favoured choice for parents of babies born in the Copenhagen area.

Meanwhile, Hugo saw a jump in popularity, moving from number 56 in 2017 number 27 on the national list for 2018.

For girls, Ellie moved 12 places up the list, from 36 two years ago to 24 in 2018.

Parents’ preferences do not appear to have changed dramatically since 2017, however.

The top ten list for boys saw only one new name, Valdemar, with two newcomers – Clara and Karla — on the girls’ list.

William has, with one exception in 2016, been the most popular name every year since 2010. Ida has boasted a top-10 place without exception since 2007.

Top 20 Danish names for girls in 2018:

  1. Ida
  2. Emma
  3. Alma
  4. Ella
  5. Sofia
  6. Freja
  7. Josefine
  8. Clara
  9. Anna
  10. Karla
  11. Laura
  12. Alberte
  13. Olivia
  14. Agnes
  15. Nora
  16. Lærke
  17. Luna
  18. Isabella
  19. Frida
  20. Lily

Top 20 Danish names for boys in 2018:

  1. William
  2. Noah
  3. Oscar
  4. Lucas
  5. Victor
  6. Malthe
  7. Oliver
  8. Alfred
  9. Carl
  10. Valdemar
  11. Emil
  12. Elias
  13. August
  14. Aksel
  15. Magnus
  16. Frederik
  17. Arthur
  18. Felix
  19. Anton
  20. Elliot

READ ALSO: Babies wanted: Nordic countries crying out for kids

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

NAMES

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

History, technology and current political trends all seem to have an influence when German parents decide on names for their children, a new survey shows.

Published: 25 March 2021 10:28 CET
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

SHOW COMMENTS