In Switzerland one name really stands out. At the end of 2018, 82,577 people called Maria were living in Switzerland, almost twice the number with the second most popular female name Anna (41,582), according to figures from the Federal Statistical Office.
Maria’s secret to success is partly its historical appeal across all of Switzerland’s linguistic regions – it comes comfortably top in all four regions. Male name popularity was more evenly spread across Daniel (62,560), Peter (58,611), Thomas (52,701) and Hans (51,143) and more mixed across linguistic regions.
These charts shows the top twenty names by gender across Switzerland’s total permanent population at 31 December 2018. The names Peter and Maria were favorite baby names in 1958, Daniel rose to preeminence in 1978, and their legacy lives on.
The most popular names given to new-borns in 2018 show that popularity doesn’t last forever. Among new-born baby girls, Maria didn’t even make the top 20. And among new-born baby boys, Daniel, Peter, Thomas and Hans were all absent from the top-20 list of boys names.
Newborns in 2018 are most likely to bear the names Emma (1st), Mia (2nd) or Sofia (3rd) if they are girls – the top three were the same as in 2017, and Liam (1st), Noah (2nd) or Leon (3rd) if they are boys.
In 2018, Liam moved ahead of Noah, which had been top for five years in a row. Emma has featured in the top two girls names for the last seven years and was the most popular name across both genders – see charts showing the top twenty 2018 newborn names here.
In 2018, Emma was a popular baby name among Switzerland’s German- (2nd), French- (1st) and Italian-speakers (4th). Liam’s popularity was fairly universal too, coming first in French-speaking Switzerland, second in the Italian-speaking region and fourth among Switzerland’s German speakers.
More on this:
Swiss first names – interactive charts (in French) – Take a 5 minute French test now
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