And Berlin gives up again - these are the most popular first names in Germany

Emilia and Noah are number one in the ranking of the most popular first names in 2022 by expert Knud Bielefeld. The statistics of the hobby name researcher were published on Friday in Ahrensburg (Schleswig-Holstein) and are available from the German Press Agency.

"Both names have been in the top ten for a long time," Bielefeld told dpa. Emilia was already at the top of the girl name list in 2021. There, Noah was in second place behind Matteo among the boys. But in 2020 Noah was already in first place.

For girls, Emilia is followed by the names Mia, Sophia, Emma and Hannah. For boys, alongside Noah, the names Matteo, Elias, Finn and Leon are in the top 5. The name Ben, which was pushed out of first place in 2020 for the first time in nine years, has slipped further and can now only be found in tenth place.

For the nationwide evaluation, Bielefeld and his team used first name data from 423 cities. Two thirds of the data comes from registry offices and the rest from baby galleries from maternity hospitals. According to its own information, Bielefeld has recorded around 250,000 birth reports. This corresponds to about 34 percent of babies born in Germany.

Bielefeld has been publishing the ranking lists of first names since 2006. The Society for the German Language also publishes similar statistics – albeit with around 90 percent of all data from the registry offices.

Northern Germany: Mia and Noah

Southwest: Sophia and Noah

Saxony: Hannah and Matteo

NRW: Emilia and Noah

Bavaria: Sophia and Elias

Berlin and Brandenburg: Charlotte and Oskar

Lower Saxony: Mia and Finn

Hesse: Emilia and Noah

Thuringia and Saxony-Anhalt: Emilia and Matteo