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Baby names

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Old fashioned German boys' names?

96 replies

CantThinkOfANC · 25/11/2013 22:34

DP and I have decided TTC in a few months and are having a good-natured bicker about what to call our DC. He is German, I am English and we live in the UK. For the time being (at least ten years) we will stay here.

His favourite name, Finn, was taken by his best friends back home six years ago. He would like very old, Germanic names that no one has heard of and I am stumped. Either they are ridiculous (Adalhard anyone?) or 'too modern', e.g. Max (although I know it's an old name but it's popular now).

He doesn't want: modern, popular, anything that his uncles/close male relatives were called.

I like (and he has vetoed): Karl, Max, Edward, Edmund, Oskar, Georg.

I am beginning to wonder if anything fits the bill? It's all highly theoretical, but good fun :)

Girl's name is sorted as my favourite for many, many years is Dorothea and I won't be budged/he's given in.

I've seen some excellent suggestions on here before - any ideas please? My prime motivation is that I suspect he is actually serious and I'd like to find some names that won't lead to our child(ren) getting bullied the second they go to school! I also have a name no one can spell and it's dead annoying. Don't want to lumber my kids with the same.

OP posts:
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Bananalanacake · 20/06/2018 20:04

I also have a German dp. He said absolutely no German names and I really liked Henning. It's also Danish. We had 2 girls and he named them.

Postymalone · 18/06/2018 21:53

Adolf?

Harebellmeadow · 18/06/2018 21:50

*Eberhardt

Harebellmeadow · 18/06/2018 21:50

Ortwin
Wilfried
Eberhard (just dont though)
Anselm

MikeUniformMike · 14/06/2018 20:27

Rudy?

Dahlietta · 14/06/2018 18:16

Yes, I wondered why this was trending earlier. When I looked at it then, the last person to comment on it was still in 2014. It's like subliminal messaging for us all to name our children Klaus and Fritz.

reluctantbrit · 14/06/2018 15:10

We are German and while DH wanted a north German/Scandinavian name it was and is more important that you are not settling your child with something ridiculous.

I work for a German company and know how many of my English colleagues really struggle with pronounciation of typical German names.

But to give some examples of my extended family (some are dead)
Hans
Heinrich, Heinz
Henning
Horst
Hubert
Siegfried
Rolf
Adalbert
Otto
August

Igneococcus · 14/06/2018 15:04

Why does this thread show up in active threads?

Igneococcus · 14/06/2018 15:02

This is a Zombie thread so it is maybe too late but seriously OP you can't give 90 % of these names to an innocent wee baby.

zenoushka · 06/02/2014 00:49

Till

HanSolo · 05/02/2014 21:16

Ooh- I thought of Lohengrin earlier! Son of Parzifal... very old name.
I cannot stop hearing Wagner playing in my head now

Inaminutenow · 05/02/2014 20:48

Willi
Walter
Dietmar
Bernd
Richard
Frank
Hans
Hans-Peter
Georg
Ingo
Thilo
Ludger
Franz
Robert
Günther
Wolfram
Helmut
Hilmar
Heinz

HoneyandRum · 05/02/2014 20:40

My DD had a Henning in her class (we are in Germany) who was a great kid - she had quite a crush on him and I don't blame her.

German boys we know:
Albert
Johan
Johannes
Tiberio
Paul-Phillip
Maximillian (Maxi)
Lukas
Jonas
Sven

HanSolo · 05/02/2014 00:44

Leopold
Sigmund/Sigismund
Heinrich

OpalQuartz · 05/02/2014 00:27

A family member has a baby Hans. Smile (They live in the US though)

MaKettle · 04/02/2014 23:07

Conrad?

Yay4may · 04/02/2014 22:54

Someone way back in the thread had Henning. Love this!!

tammytoby · 04/02/2014 22:23

"Christoph, Markus, Kai ......?"

I wouldn't call those old fashioned. They are very much the age 30-40 generation.

Old fashioned German names are Otto, Wolfram, Heinrich, Walter, Dietmar, Franz, Friedrich etc.

pressingbuttons · 04/02/2014 18:24

Christoph, Markus, Wolfgang, Kai ......?

badtime · 02/12/2013 21:51

My favourites are (the very old) Albrecht and Waldemar.

(I know Waldemar is more common in Poland these days, but it is originally German)

Mushypeasandchipstogo · 02/12/2013 20:58

My grandfather was Johann Jogar but I like the names of Werner or Lucas.

Frikadellen · 27/11/2013 22:26

Hannes
Hans Christian
Friedrich
Ludweig
Albrecht
Heinrich
Emil

Or have a look here

family tree of german royals ALL dead :)

Ilovekittyelise · 27/11/2013 21:08

sorry i re read and realised it might sound a bit negativeand i realise its just lighthearted and a fun and exciting time, a close friend of mine has had a long journey which makes me not want others to go through all the hope and sadness she has (which is extremely unlikely!)

TheNunsOfGavarone · 27/11/2013 20:38

racks brains to think of why that might be.

The trend for Adolf is quite interesting in the German boys name site I linked (or tried to link above). It seems to have peaked in popularity in the 1890s and 1900s but by the time of Hitler's rise to power it struggles to make the top 30. From there it falls off a cliff halfway through the war, hopefully never to rise again. It's very hard to look at it objectively - I don't think it's a very nice name and certainly not when compared with some of the wonderful names suggested on this thread, but is that because of the inextricable link with Hitler?

One dodgy name that was almost constantly at the top in the 20s and 30s is Horst. But so was the inoffensive sounding (to me at least) Hans, which seems to be completely out of fashion now. Did Hans acquire something of a Nazi aura or is it just an unglamorous old man's name equivalent to Norman or Ronald in this country?

interregnum · 27/11/2013 14:42

Can't believe Varya suggested Adolf, sure there was a reason that name
fell out of favour.