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Yes, we have naming laws in Germany but they are weird! You aren't allowed to give your child a name from which you can't tell its gender. You can't just name a girl Kim because Kim is unisex. So if you name your daughter Kim you have to choose a middle name that's strictly feminine. So no Kim Ashley. It would have to be something like Kim Isabel or Kim Ashley Isabel etc

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The thing is that there isn't a rule for the whole country about which names are permitted and which names aren't. There is always a single person who decides. If you are not happy with the decision you can however go to court. A couple wanted to name their daughter Tiger (middle name only, I think the first name was Anna or Emma) and they weren't allowed to. They went to court and they still said no. Then they went to court again and were finally allowed to use it. And it was just the middle name!

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They also didn't approve of Narvik at first (which is a normal sounding name, not weird or anything in Germany) but I think the parents went to court. They did however approve of Pepsi-Karola uaaaahhhhhh Pepsi ?

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Do you want a list with the names popular in Germany ?

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Here is one:

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http://www.beliebte-vornamen.de/2007.htm

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for 2007....

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many German sites list the popularity of first and middle names in the same popularity chart so you can't actually tell if the name is popular as a first or only as a middle name which is confusing or they combine the popularity of Marie and Maria but the above link is for first names only (so Maria/Marie isn't number 1 unless on lists that include middle names) which I think is much better and it also doesn't combine the popularity of similar names like Sophie and Sophia which is good. It does combine different spellings of the same name, though. So yeah it should give you a good idea about what is popular now.

This message was edited 10/1/2008, 5:43 PM