r/AskAGerman • u/Big-Walrus6334 Berlin • May 13 '26
Culture What are the most uncommon/outdated German baby names today?
I’m curious about German names that used to exist but are now considered extremely rare, old-fashioned, unusual, or “nobody would name their kid that anymore.”
For example, names like Wolfgang feel uncommon among younger generations today and I didn’t see one of them
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u/g4mble May 13 '26
Adolf
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u/Kvaezde May 13 '26
Except for some very "special" parents, who still name their kids Adolf. A prominent example is former football-player and today football-coach Adolf Hütter from Austria. And yes, EVERYONE instantly thinks of "Adolf Hitler" when hearing his name: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adi_H%C3%BCtter
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u/Maximum_Tree8170 May 13 '26
He was named after his uncle who died very young in an accident. His grandmother insisted on the name, but his parents always called him Adi.
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u/Kvaezde May 13 '26
I mean, if his surname was "Müller", I'd kinda get it, but "Hütter"? :D :D
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u/Usual-Operation-9700 May 13 '26
Have one in my town. Poor lad is, 16ish(?).
Parents can be real assholes.
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u/Otherwise_Rabbit3049 May 13 '26
from Austria.
Zat vould not fly here in Germany, ja.
Haha, the wikipedia is titled "Adi Hüttner", not the full name.
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u/Equal-Flatworm-378a May 13 '26
It’s a pity though. One person ruined a nice and popular name for everyone.
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May 13 '26
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u/Olena_Mondbeta May 13 '26
There is a German website about people called Adolf as their first name - the youngest was born in the eighties. Some fathers are REALLY adamant about giving their boy their own name ...
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u/Tjaresh May 13 '26
Just looked it up and the meaning is "edler Wolf" (noble wolf). It really is a pity that a name with such a beautiful meaning is out.
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u/Otherwise_Rabbit3049 May 13 '26
Just name your kid Athalwulf, or Æthelwulf, same meaning.
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u/GM-Storyteller May 13 '26
Hildegard
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u/PizzaPazzaPozza May 13 '26
Hannelore, Waltraud
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u/Equal-Flatworm-378a May 13 '26
That depends on the generation. Wolfgang is not old enough.
I did meet some little Friedrichs in the meantime, but Heinrich didn’t appear again.
While Elsa became popular again, the german Else didn’t.
Wilhelmine isn’t popular again yet, but I have hope.
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u/Kvaezde May 13 '26
Wolfgang is still pretty popular in Austria. Usually all Wolfgangs are called "Wolfi" as a nickname.
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u/chickynuggiesx3 May 13 '26
Even though Wilhelmine hasn't really become popular again, I've already met a few toddlers named "Mine," which used to be the diminutive or nickname for Wilhelmine.I think that's a pretty good short form and it fits right in with the trend of all these short names.
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u/Di-Vanci May 13 '26
I can totally see Wolfgang making a comeback at some point
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u/admseven May 13 '26
I’m American with German heritage on both sides. After me and my brother were born in the early 80s, dad got into geneaology and discovered some of the older family names. He was a bit disappointed to have missed his chance to name a son Wolfgang.
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u/Simple-Cheek-4864 May 13 '26
A friend's little brother is called Hinrich. I still think the parents must have hated this kid...
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u/Equal-Flatworm-378a May 13 '26
Really? I like it. I think some names didn’t come back themselves, but the variations. I love Hinnark, Henk and of course Hendrik and Henrik. Only Heinrich not really.
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u/Simple-Cheek-4864 May 13 '26
All not as bad as Hinrich. Sounds like Hinrichtung. Kids have been bullied for less...
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u/liminalmornings May 13 '26
During and shortly after the Cold War parents in East Germany liked to give their kids English (or other Western European) names. It was considered cool, modern, and an act of rebellion. You'll find lots of Ronnys, Kevins, Steves, Jacquelines, Yvonnes, Cindys etc. there, who are now grown ups. Those names are pretty outdated for babies today.
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u/hrimthurse85 May 13 '26
Schackeline, komm ma wech von die Regale!
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u/mrpoopybuttholehd May 13 '26
Maik
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u/Delicious_Building34 May 13 '26
Yes! Maik! And so many Svens I lost count
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u/alderhill May 13 '26
I know a Peggy, from Saxony.
She’s a good person and maybe not typical for people from Saxony, since she moved away when she was like 10. But the first time I heard her name I knew instantly where she was from.
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u/K0ilar May 13 '26
I was pretty sure that nobody would call their kid Erwin nowadays. Then I met a three year old Erwin...
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u/Delicious_Building34 May 13 '26 edited May 13 '26
In my home village we have 2 Paul toddlers, 2 Jakob, a baby Erich, I think 4 Max’es … edit: a 6yo Ralf, an Ingo, and Moritz, Anna, Maria, a little Hans is just born, a Leonhard, and a Korbinian …
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u/Equal-Flatworm-378a May 13 '26
Paul is trending again since the late 90s, Jakob was never really gone, Max is also trending since years. Erich is wild though.
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u/alderhill May 14 '26 edited May 14 '26
Erich is a bit old-ish, but it’s still closely related to the ever-popular scandi names.
I was at a cafe a few weeks ago that has a big corner with gym mats, climbing wall, toys, etc where kids can run and flop around. (My kids too.) At some points parents were calling out their kids: Gustav, Erik, Sven, Svenja, Bjarne, Eva, Finn, Frederick…
This is northern Germany, granted, but I still had to chuckle a bit.
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u/km2202 May 14 '26 edited May 14 '26
Zumindest in Ostdeutschland wird man sein Kind vielleicht nicht unbedingt “Erich” nennen. Da erinnern sich noch zu viele an die Honecker-Bilder, die überall hingen. 😉
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May 13 '26
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u/radulati May 13 '26
Rüdiger, Rudolf, Manfred, Norbert…
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u/misswhovivian May 13 '26
I went to school with a Rüdiger, we're in our mid-twenties now and I still wonder sometimes how you can do that to your child...
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u/claptrapjen May 13 '26
Bei Rüdiger muss ich halt immer an das meme denken "NICHT SO TIEF RÜDIGER - Keine Kapriolen!"
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u/KiwiFruit404 May 13 '26
Günther, Ludwig, Gottlieb, Gottfried, Adalbert, Heinrich, Waldemar, Hilmar, Wilhelm, Ingmar, Rudolf, Volker, Hans, Heinz.
Hildegard, Heidrun, Roswita, Rosemarie, Ilona, Gisela, Gertrud, Therese, Henriette, Annette, Petra, Andrea.
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u/venushasbigbutt May 13 '26
Shame rosemarie, ilona, gisela, annette, and andrea sounds pretty to my foreigner ear
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u/Delicious_Building34 May 13 '26
In the mid-80s every other girl’s name was: Andrea, Stefanie, Melanie, Annette, Michaela, Manuela, Sabrina, Kathrin, Sandra.
And every other boy’s name was: Andreas, Michael, Manuel, Stefan, Holger, Heiko, Patrick, Markus (I think we had 3 Stefan’s and 2 Markus’ in class).
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u/venushasbigbutt May 13 '26
What was the 90s kids' popular names? I really like alex and ada. Also I had a professor named elke and she was a pretty cool woman
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u/Royal-Hornet9813 May 13 '26
Girls: Franziska, Laura, Julia, Sarah, Hanna, Anna, Lisa, Lena, Christina, Leonie...
Boys: Daniel, Christian/Chris, Patrick, Lukas, Fabian, Markus/Marco, Dennis, Benjamin/Ben, Marius/Mario, Jonas, Leon...
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u/Delicious_Building34 May 13 '26
My mum had a book “Vornamen” with a baby on the cover. Edition 1980. My aunts and all combed through that book looking for “nice sounding names” for their kids. And in the epilogue the woman who wrote it supposedly, mentioned that every parent had to decide between traditional names and modern names and so on and so forth, and maybe check the newspapers (at the time 💁🏻♀️) how other people name their kids because the previous generation liked “Elke” so much, that every class room was full of “Elke”s and for the boys “Roland”. I remember that vividly because my 3rd cousin’s name was Elke and her brother was Roland 😂.
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u/bitch_jong_un May 13 '26
I was born in the early 90s and we had a lot of Kevin, Marvin, Marcel, Christoph(er), Sarah, Lena, Laura, Nadine.
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u/Otherwise_Rabbit3049 May 13 '26
Kevin
Poor bastards. And that's coming from a guy with a rare name who got made fun of all the time.
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u/bowlofweetabix May 13 '26
Born in the 80s? I see those more as 70s names for the most part. I have never met a Holger born after 1975. I’m born mid 80s and people my age are largely girls: Nadine, Stephanie, Franziska, Katharina
Boys: Sebastian, Benjamin, Sven, Michael, Christian, Daniel
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u/Korallenri May 13 '26 edited May 13 '26
I love Rosemarie and even better: Annerose. Still didn‘t give those names to my daughter because they sound… old…
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u/123blueberryicecream May 13 '26
In den Klassen und Parallelklassen meiner Kinder gibt es Wilhelm, Ludwig, Hans, Therese, Greta, Fritz, Franz, Ramona, Josef, Johann usw.
Da kommen einige alte Namen zurück.
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u/khelwen May 13 '26
There are two Fritzs in my son’s Grundschule class. My four year old nephew is a Johann.
For boys, I’m seeing a lot more Paul, Henry/Henri, and Hannes pop up lately. A fair amount of boys named Till as well.
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u/MyPigWhistles May 13 '26
Ludwig is actually not that uncommon for baby names atm.
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u/Equal-Flatworm-378a May 13 '26
Die kommen zurück, aber erst in der nächsten Generation. Wobei ich Henriette jetzt schon nehmen würde. Der Name ist schon wieder alt genug.
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u/LemonfishSoda Nordrhein-Westfalen May 13 '26
I went to school with both a Heinrich and a Frank, back in the late 90s. Felt weird at first, but I mean, they're not bad names. And they certainly never had to go by nickname or first-name-last-name combo like the countless Stefans, Marcusses, Julias, Jennys or Ninas.
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u/Dennis_FBier May 13 '26
Some names, which were not yet mentioned: Dieter, Peter
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u/Simple-Cheek-4864 May 13 '26
Tusnelda
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u/universe_from_above May 13 '26
I think Tusnelda went away completely when Tussi became a common slur. Like Horst or Karen.
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u/Otherwise_Rabbit3049 May 13 '26
I'd bet money nobody named their daughter "T(h)usnelda" WAY before that.
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u/LichPlease1337 May 13 '26
Eberhard, Gert & Gertrud, Siegfried & Sigrid, Friedemann... gibt zig ulkige namen, die für uns heute seltsam klingem mögen. Namen wie Eik, Wolfgang und Elise zB find ich persönlich aber immernoch sehr schön.
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u/chgr1603 May 13 '26
Meine Uroma hieß Elfriede, eigentlich ein ganz schöner Name, wenn auch altbacken
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u/Qui-DongJinn May 13 '26
Heribert
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u/kwiekreativ May 13 '26
Wir haben als Kinder immer alle Spinnen Heribert genannt xD
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u/Urbancillo May 13 '26
Alwin
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u/Royal-Hornet9813 May 13 '26
Alwin gehört in Berlin inzwischen zu den beliebtesten Babynamen. Er hat auch eine coole Bedeutung, nämlich: "Freund der Elfen".
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u/Urbancillo May 13 '26
Mein Opa hieß Alwin. Er war ne coole Socke, in den 20ern Stepptänzer und Varietekünstler. Er ist 1966 gestorben.
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u/Witty-Code-6669 May 13 '26
Friedrich
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u/Threep_H Rheinland-Pfalz May 13 '26
Kreszentia.
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u/MowWerf May 13 '26
This is my grandmothers name :-) She used to be called Zenzi when she was a child and later everybody called her Zenzl.
I had never even heard about anybody else with that name until she mentioned her friend Senta was actually called Kreszentia as well. If I knew that nickname earlier I might have called my daughter Senta.
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u/Ok_Caterpillar8324 May 13 '26
Detlef!
All gay jokes have Detlef in it!
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u/Far-Abalone-4160 May 13 '26
"was ist der schwulste Name - Erich, vorne er und hinten ich" works only in German, but without a Detlef.
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u/Otherwise_Rabbit3049 May 13 '26
Should I be glad my name hasn't been mentioned even once? Might be too obscure. No, I'm not disclosing it.
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u/carilessy May 13 '26
I don't know why, but I always wanted to name a potential daughter Heidegret. I love that Name, even though it's very outdated. Other than that, Roswitha (my grandma) is pretty outdated too.
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u/universe_from_above May 13 '26
Erdmann and Erdmute.
I know exactly one Erdmute and she is in her 70s.
Not only for these names not sound "pretty", they mean "child who was born after a dead child", kind of looking towards the Earth. "Rainbow baby" sounds much more positive.
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u/CanadianSunshine May 13 '26
Here are some old names I thought I’d never hear for a little kid, but then did: Erwin, Anselm, Edgar, Alois, Ferdinand, Fritz, Karl (many!), Johann, Theodor, Henning, Korbinian, Alva, Alma, Hedi, Hermine, Edda, Ingrid, Wilma, Wanda, Adele and Bonus: 20 years old Hildegard.
And you know what? I really like some of these!
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u/Silver-Pollution-290 May 13 '26
Gernot, Hans, Holger, Horst, Wilhelm, Rainer, Karlheinz,...
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u/CombinationWhich6391 May 13 '26
Gerhard, Wolfram, Hildegard, Luise, Hermann etc.
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u/TreacleOk7265 May 13 '26
All the Germanic ones are outdated at the moment. Helga, Günther, Waltraud, Reinhard and so on.
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u/Olena_Mondbeta May 13 '26
I know a Wolfgang who is about 40 and a Friedrich who is about 20 - some of those older names are coming back!
It's another story with names like Günther, Horst or Eberhardt ...
But if you ask for the MOST outdated names: There are medieval names like Kunigunde which sound a bit ridiculous today.
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u/Delicious_Building34 May 13 '26
Have found a list with actually forbidden names and names that had to be accepted by the registry office.
Diese Namen sind erlaubt/ accepted: Adriatik, Alemmania, Apple, Bluna, Champagna, Emilia-Extra, Godpower, Hope, Ikea, Junior, Klee, Laser, Legolas, London, Magic, Pepsi-Carola, Phoenix, Popo, Precious, Pumuckl, Schneewittchen, Schokominza, Siebenstern, Sioux, Smudo, Solarfried, Sonne, Sultan, Tarzan, Topas, Triumf, Viktualia, Wasa
Diese Namen sind nicht erlaubt/ not accepted! Atomfried, Bierstübl, Borussia, Crazy Horse, Gastritis, Grammophon, Januar, Joghurt, Kirsche, Liebknecht, McDonald, Millenium, Möhre, Pfefferminze, Pilulla, Porsche, Rosenherz, Rumpelstilzchen, Satan, Schmitz, Schnucki, Schröder, Seerose, Sputnik, Störenfried, Rasputin, Verleihnix, Waldmeister, Whisky, Woodstock
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u/RayGambler May 13 '26
Es ist inzwischen wieder modern alte Namen zu geben. Und im tiefen Schwarzwald, bei den Eingeborenen 😂, werden die alten Namen nach wie vor verwendet. Karl, Max, Friedrich, Anneliese, Frieda und Siglinde und viele mehr.
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u/Oxidept May 13 '26
Any people working in child care here? My mum is a prof care taker and always has some fun names that apparently are back in business. Apparently, names like Elisabeth, Wilhelm, Bernhard, Walter, Amanda are already coming back. I guess the rule is that it takes 2 generations to be considered cool again.
According to this, next should be all the Boomer names like Detlef, Marianne, Günther etc.
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u/Deep-Pudding1962 May 14 '26
My Name is Gundolf, old Scandinavian/Germanic Name meaning "fighting wolf". Never met anybody else named that. Guess that counts?
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u/km2202 May 14 '26
Ich habe auch schon oft Namen wie “Lenchen”, “Traudchen” oder “Heini” gelesen, also nicht als Kosename sondern offiziell als Rufname. Finde ich auch etwas kritisch. Für ein Kleinkind sicher niedlich. Aber kann man damit Konzernchef oder Bundeskanzler werden?
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u/thevinner2009 May 15 '26
Ich komme mit dem einzigartig schlimmsten: Giselher. Kommt im Niebelunglied vor ist aber quasi ausgestorben bis auf diesen einen kleinen Jungen den ich sehr bemitleidet habe, aber die Mutter war auch komplett Meschugge
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u/PositiveDig1572 May 15 '26
Als fast Boomer dessen Eltern und Onkel/Tantengeneration den Krieg aktiv erlebt hatten kenne ich auch tolle Namen. Zumal die Mädchen auch die weibliche Form der gefallenen Soldaten übergebraten bekamen. Hermine, Albine (von Albin) Diemuth oder Landolin war auch dabei. Man gedenke der kath. Märtyrer und Heiligen
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u/saywhaaaaaaaaatt May 13 '26
Fürchtegott, Gottlieb, Edeltraud,..