Germany’s birth register features an increasingly diverse range of first names, according to one expert, whose work in checking a growing number of new entries has swelled because of high migration and trendy parents.
Authorities in Germany must approve the name given to a newborn, with every previously unheard-of name facing a strict vetting process.
About 1,000 new first names appear on birth certificates every year, said Gabriele Rodriguez, an expert on baby names at the University of Leipzig.
“Migration brings with it new names to us,” Rodriguez told reporters.
Her institute gives previously unregistered baby names the green light for an estimated 3,000 people every year in the eastern state of Saxony.
Since 2014, when a total of 41,514 different names were recorded, the institute has noted a marked increase in the number because of immigration. The long-running favourites – Mia, Ben, Emma and Jonas – now have to contend with Arabic, Turkish, Kurdish and Persian names.
“Jasmin, for example, is a Persian name that has since come to be seen as a totally normal name in Germany,” Rodriguez said.
Migration is not the only reason behind Germany’s increasing databank of names, she says. “There is a trend towards individualisation. Many parents want unusual names that not everyone has.”
Around two-thirds of newborns have a one-time unique name for their year of birth, according to the institute, with Xantippe, Anakin, Neymar, Sequoia, Godsgift, Buckminster, Schnuckelpupine and Prinz-Gold among some of the recent creations.
Not every name makes it past Rodriguez and her colleagues.
“The main criterium is whether the name will expose the child to ridicule,” she says.
“Superman, Wikileaks, Waldmeister – that’s not at all acceptable!”