View Message

This is a reply within a larger thread: view the whole thread

[Facts] Re: Top names in Germany, 2006
The "Gesellschaft für deutsche Sprache e. V." ("Society for the German Language") publishes something that approaches an "official" national statistic. They make public the top 10 names every year, but you can order a list of the top 200 names for a small fee, as described here (in German):
http://www.gfds.de/index.php?id=63However, the lists are for personal use only; when I once tried to get a license for publishing the lists as part of my shareware, they declined.As for Finn, that looks really strange, and I don't know of anything in the popular culture in Germany right now that could produce this phenomenon. But maybe I am already too old, maybe German teenagers should be interviewed :)

Rene     www.AboutNames.ch
vote up1vote down

Replies

If I recall, there were about three Olivers in the German 2002 World Cup squad. As a non-German, that looked really unexpected to me. Perhaps German parents are just very relaxed about their name borrowing, though that doesn't explain why they make the same choices at the same time!
vote up1vote down
So, I'm a German teenager, and no, I don't know any Finn from popular culture either. I guess it just has to do with people liking scandinavian names nowadays, like Lars or Svenja. Finn just fits in.
vote up1vote down