Common Names At Different Countries

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Just out of curiosity, and school work, I would like to ask this: what are the most common names in your country? Second, if you had two children, one a boy and one a girl, what their names would be?

In Finland, the most common names are probably Matti, Juha, Antti and Olli. If I had to choose a name for a boy, it would be (most likely not, eheh ) Leevi, and for a girl: Leena.

So, what your choises would be at the moment and totally out of your head? (Just don't start discussing about this with your wife/husband now )

 

The most common name in Britain is John Smith. I'd name my son Poindexter (thanks to Sir Bel for this one), not sure on the daughter though.

 

The most common male names here are Giorgos, Dimitris and Giannis and the most common female names are Maria and Eleni. As far as the choice of the name is concerned, it is tradition that the children are taking the names of their grantparents.

 

In holland we have many:

for men:

jan
peter
willem
kees
gijs
bas
pieter

For woman

Anne
Marieke
anja
marja

These I think are typically dutch.

Haven't really thought of names for my children.

 

I can't say. It used to be John, Peter and Stanislas for men, Mary and Anne (sometimes Marianne) for women. Stephen, Vladislas, Adam and Francis followed for men and Sophia & Barbara for women.

Now, however, this is no longer the case. We've had a fad of not giving traditional Slavic names to children and also avoiding the popular non-Slavic traditional ones, like John or Peter. People wanted something new. There was a real boom for Western-style names. You know, Angelica in a Slavic country sounds stupid and so does Oliver.

At present, it's stabilising and people are getting more or less normal names. There's only that trend for ancient Slavic ones that don't function in any other language. Well, maybe except ancient Greek because they composed names in a similar fashion.

If you care, I have a list of names to distribute between my offspring

Archibald - my old nickname. Don't ask.
Nalia - no comments. Not for the first name, though.
James Edward - guess
Publius - no comments

Of course, the male firstborn shall be named Lucas David. II.

 

Apeman gave a pretty good list, but I would like to add some names to it:
For men: Tim, Daan, Niels, Nick, Matthijs.
For women: Eva.


If I would have children, I would give the name Harper if it was a boy, and Zoe or Alyssa if it was a girl. (Unless the mother strongly disagrees of course or has other good ideas for names)

 

Common men name (for my generation): Mathieu, Samuel, Maxime, and Éric

Women: Karine, Stéphanie, Julie, and Valérie


For the second question I realy but realy don't know...

 

Most common Swedish names i can think of is Erik and Johan for males and Maria and Anna for females. My own kid, I haven't the slightest idea. The thought of *ME* having kids is just absurd!

 

Mike. I swear to God you can't go anywhere around here without meeting a Mike. A few years ago, five of the twentysix people in my class were named Mike! The next year, our school split into two because of the crowding, and the only grade eight class had four Mikes! It's insane!

 

Well, for every Mike I come across, there is sure to be an equal amount of David's. For girls name's I know a lot of Linda, Debby, Michelle, and Lisa's.

 

I'd name a child of the male variety '8 inch straight track' (personal joke; actually between me and someone else, so I suppose it's an extended personal joke)

For a girl child 'Minty' or 'Cookie' or possibly 'Cabbage'.

[ November 29, 2003, 23:00: Message edited by: Lazy Bonzo ]

 

James seems to be the current fad, although i assume the latest generation is a big bunch of Davids.

My son will be given the almighty name of Cornelius.

 

@Dragonfly
I don't even know any Davids, Lindas, Debbies, Michelles, or Lisas! We must be in seperate parts of Canada!

 

Heh, quite a diversity. Would be interesting to know what the most common names would be in african, asian or arabic countries and compare them to these.

 

Though I'm not from around the area I live in the most common boys names here are Mohammad and Abdullah.

Girls' names vary more than boys' but the most common one would be Sarah.

I would name my son Adam and my daughter Hannah.

 

Last post highlighted, IMO, rather interesting point out: religion has affected quite some much what people see as "good" names. I guess it would be easy to say that in african countries common names would be their religions and myths characters names; like Leza, Mawu-Liza, Mulungu, Ngewo or Ntoro. By the same line, common indian names could be Hayagriva, Brahma ("Brama"), Avalokitesvara, or Laksmi. Common chinese names could be Yi, Yu, Okuninushi, Kuanyin, Huang(-di), or Kuanyin.

'Course, if here is someone from these places, it would be fun to know did my guesses hit their target.

 

Here, (Georgia, USA) I find the most common are M: Chris, and F: Ashley.

But for my son, all I know is that the middle name will be Beau. (Pronounced bow)

 

I'm surprised no one mentioned Kevin yet...

@Canadians: yes, there are too many Mike's and Michael's... but part of them sound like "Michelle"

 

Some others Apeman didn't mention:

Male:
Joost
Klaas
Wouter
Bert
Gert
Bram

And of course combinations like Pieter Bas, Willem Jan, Klaas Jan and Kees Jan or (with a smile to our politicians and royalties) Jan-Peter and Willem Alexander

Female:
Anneke
Hanneke
Janneke
Sanneke
Marjanneke and an other 500 names with anne or -ke (-ke is old dutch for little)
Toos (less common among younger)
Mien (less common among younger)
Joke (less common among younger)

Many dutch names are also common in Germany, btw.

The names Mesmero mentioned, Tim, Daan, Niels and other short names, are quite popular nowadays.

And my name is pretty darn dutch too: Thijs (or Matthijs Pieter for my Christian name )

edit: I forgot Jaap (and Jan-Jaap)

[ November 30, 2003, 22:15: Message edited by: Master of Nuhn ]

 

In Australia it would be shame not to mention Craig for boys and Sharon for girls.

I hope that some other aussies read that and vomit. (Or larf).