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Ahrensburg (dpa) - Ben is no longer the most popular first name among newborn boys in Germany in the ranking of the first name expert Knud Bielefeld.
After nine years at the helm, Noah ousted him - but by a narrow margin, as the statistics published by the amateur name researcher on Wednesday in Ahrensburg (Schleswig-Holstein) show and available to the German press agency.
Matteo is also very close behind Noah and Ben.
It was similarly tight with the girls, Bielefeld told the dpa.
There, Mia, Emilia and Hannah pushed the popular Emma from her throne.
«That was extremely exciting for me.
It was a head-to-head race until the last second.
In most of the previous years I already knew in the spring who would be number one, because the leading names had already built a large gap over the year. "
This means that the ranking this year is not that significant, said Bielefeld, who evaluated the names of around 23 percent of all children born in Germany in 2020.
“If my sample had looked a little different, then the name, which is now perhaps in second or third place, would be in first place.
There are only minimal differences between them. "
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Nevertheless, the change at the top was already foreseeable.
Because both Emilia and Matteo have steadily climbed up the list of the most popular first names in recent years.
"If I have to predict: I expect Matteo and Emilia to be number one next year if the upward trend continues like this."
Incidentally, Emma, Sophia, Lina, Ella, Mila, Clara and Lea landed on the other places with the girls.
With the boys, Finn, Leon, Elias, Paul, Henry, Luis and Felix made it into the top ten.
The most popular middle names in 2020 were Sophia, Marie and Maria as well as Alexander, Elias and Maximilian.
International - especially English and Scandinavian - as well as older German names are also popular every year, according to the first name expert.
«Emil, Anton, Paul, Emma, Anna - these are older names that we have known for a long time.
Gerda climbs higher from year to year and the name Kurt has now become more and more popular, especially in Saxony. "
Bielefeld couldn't say why that could be.
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According to Bielefeld, there is also a clear relegated person this year: the first name Greta.
As early as the summer, he had predicted that the first name, which the Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg also bears, would slip down the list of popular first names.
Now he has even fallen from 30th place to 130th place.
“It really is the most remarkable observation I've ever made since these statistics.
Such a steep fall. "
Of course, parents have again given their children extraordinary names in 2020.
For example, girls were called Amore, Divora and Marvelous, while boys were named Archibald, Hotte, Rhett and Denver.
According to Bielefeld, these names were all given at least twice in Germany.
On the other hand, one name did not appear: Corona.
The year of the exception to the coronavirus was still noticeable in the evaluation of the first name hit list.
Usually Bielefeld and its helpers evaluate both the official reports of a city and the photo galleries of maternity clinics.
Due to the corona, however, the photographers were there less often in 2020.
Instead, the expert reported that significantly more registry offices gave him data on first names this year.
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For the statistics, Bielefeld evaluated data from 465 locations.
They correspond to around 23 percent of all children born in 2020.
The Society for German Language also publishes similar statistics with around 90 percent of all data from the registry offices.
In a forecast in mid-December, she saw Emil and Lena with the best chances for the top places nationwide.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 201230-99-850298 / 2
Knud Bielefeld - Popular first names
Birth statistics from the Federal Statistical Office
Most popular first names according to the Society for the German Language