German parents have once again chosen to keep their kid’s names to three letters, with Ben and Mia the most popular baby names in 2015. These two names had already led between 2009-2013.
For the fifth consecutive year, Ben has topped the list of the most popular name for boys in Germany. After being knocked off the top spot last year by Emma, Mia claimed top spot for girls as the most popular name for girls.
According to researcher Knud Bielefeld, who compiled the list, these names are growing in popularity. “When a name has established itself as being fashionable it stays there for a while,” he said.
“In the 80s, the name Christian was a long time in first position, and before that Hans was one of the most popular names for a long time. So it’s nothing unusual,” he added.
“The current trend seems to be short names, full of vowels and less consonants. It’s become very rare to see many consonants sitting next to each other in a name,” Bielefeld observed.
“Another change in recent years is that the names sound so soft. The change is particularly noticeable with boys’ names which sounded much harder in the past.”
Following Ben into the “Top 10” for boys names were Jonas, Leon, Elias, Finn, Noah, Paul, Luis, Lukas and Luca. Following Mia into the “Top 10” for girls names were Emma, Hannah, Sofia, Anna, Emilia, Lina, Marie, Lena and Mila completed the chart. Emilia entered the top ten for the first time at number seven.
The list was compiled using the birth registrations of 183,396 babies in 2015, as well as data collected by name researcher Knud Bielefeld.
