'Ben' and 'Emma' top baby names for 2014
DPA/The Local - [email protected]
Published: 30 Dec, 2014 CET.
Updated: Tue 30 Dec 2014 10:17 CET
"Emma" has dethroned the reigning "Mia" as the favourite baby girl name in Germany, it was announced on Tuesday, as a list of top baby names of 2014 was published. Mia had held the top spot for five years, in an increasingly internationalised-sounding list.
"It was an exciting race right down to the last data points, but in 2014, Emma won the race of the most loved name in Germany," said Knud Bielefeld, who tracks baby names as his hobby in Ahrensburg. Mia has topped Bielefeld's annual ranking since 2009. In 2014, it was the second most popular. Hannah, Sofia as well as Emilia rounded out the top five. Emilia moved up two spots, bumping Anna and Leah. Ben continued its reign the list of boys names, a position it has held since 2011. Hot on Ben's heels came Louis, which jumped up in the rankings five spots from the previous year. Paul, Lukas and Jonas followed. Bielefeld noted regional differences as well. Berlin saw a boom of Noah and Elias, while surrounding areas loved Oskar. Maximilian bowed out to Lukas in Munich for the first time, causing some excitement in Bielefeld's list. "I have never seen, since keeping my statistics, Maximilian fall from the top place in Munich," he said. 
Germany's World Cup champions also took influence in the list. Mats, as in Mats Hummels who plays for Borussia Dortmund as well as being part of Die Mannschaft's roster, jumped from 33rd in 2013 to 24th in 2014. "Since the footballer has found fame, the name has slowly climbed into the list, but there were never so many babies as there were in 2014 names Mats," Bielefeld noted. Bielefeld saw the biggest jump in baby boys named Mats in North Rhine-Westphalia. Other footballers who found their way as namesakes for baby Germans in 2014 included Sami (Khedira), Lionel (Messi), as well as Cristiano (Ronaldo) and Arjen (Robben). Even Neymar (da Silva) found itself in the top 150 for the first time. It was also noted that despite their feted status following the tournament, keeper Manuel (Neuer) and Mario (Götze) did not manage to create any waves on the official rankings. At least not this year. Even politicians had a small influence, as Barack (Obama) and (Recep Tayyip) Erdogan found itselves on the list. But not Angela. "Angela is so out dated," Bielefeld said of Chancellor Angela Merkel's name. Bielefeld looked at 181,300 births - around 27 percent of all births in Germany - to come up with his rankings. He and his volunteers look through hospital birth announcements as well as birth records where they are publicly available to put together the rankings.
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"It was an exciting race right down to the last data points, but in 2014, Emma won the race of the most loved name in Germany," said Knud Bielefeld, who tracks baby names as his hobby in Ahrensburg.
Mia has topped Bielefeld's annual ranking since 2009. In 2014, it was the second most popular. Hannah, Sofia as well as Emilia rounded out the top five. Emilia moved up two spots, bumping Anna and Leah.
Ben continued its reign the list of boys names, a position it has held since 2011. Hot on Ben's heels came Louis, which jumped up in the rankings five spots from the previous year. Paul, Lukas and Jonas followed.
Bielefeld noted regional differences as well. Berlin saw a boom of Noah and Elias, while surrounding areas loved Oskar. Maximilian bowed out to Lukas in Munich for the first time, causing some excitement in Bielefeld's list.
"I have never seen, since keeping my statistics, Maximilian fall from the top place in Munich," he said.
Germany's World Cup champions also took influence in the list. Mats, as in Mats Hummels who plays for Borussia Dortmund as well as being part of Die Mannschaft's roster, jumped from 33rd in 2013 to 24th in 2014.
"Since the footballer has found fame, the name has slowly climbed into the list, but there were never so many babies as there were in 2014 names Mats," Bielefeld noted.
Bielefeld saw the biggest jump in baby boys named Mats in North Rhine-Westphalia.
Other footballers who found their way as namesakes for baby Germans in 2014 included Sami (Khedira), Lionel (Messi), as well as Cristiano (Ronaldo) and Arjen (Robben). Even Neymar (da Silva) found itself in the top 150 for the first time.
It was also noted that despite their feted status following the tournament, keeper Manuel (Neuer) and Mario (Götze) did not manage to create any waves on the official rankings. At least not this year.
Even politicians had a small influence, as Barack (Obama) and (Recep Tayyip) Erdogan found itselves on the list. But not Angela.
"Angela is so out dated," Bielefeld said of Chancellor Angela Merkel's name.
Bielefeld looked at 181,300 births - around 27 percent of all births in Germany - to come up with his rankings. He and his volunteers look through hospital birth announcements as well as birth records where they are publicly available to put together the rankings.
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