I’m interested in what people name their babies in the US and around the world. This will be the first post of many (though not all in a row!) where I’ll discuss International Baby Names.

 

Tomorrow, June 5^th, is Constitution Day in Denmark — a national holiday to commemorate the signing of the Danish constitution. I think that makes this the perfect day to consider popular baby names in Denmark.

 

When I started researching Danish baby names, I ran into a bit of a roadblock finding the information I wanted. Luckily, I found the name and email address of Dorthe Larsen, Senior Head Clerk, Population, Statistics Denmark. She led me to the information I wanted and even translated key parts of the page for me so that I would know what I was reading. Above and beyond the call of duty — thank you, Dorthe!

 

As a result, my favorite name of the week is, officially, DORTHE!

 

So, what information was I looking for? The Top 10 Baby Names in Denmark. Here are the most popular names for 2008:

 

 

TOP 10 GIRL NAMES

 

1.      EMMA

2.      FREJA

3.      CAROLINE

4.      IDA

5.      SOFIE

6.      MATHILDE

7.      ANNA

8.      LAURA

9.      SARA

10. LÆRKE

 

 

TOP 10 BOY NAMES

 

1.      LUCAS

2.      MIKKEL

3.      WILLIAM

4.      OLIVER

5.      NOAH

6.      EMIL

7.      SEBASTIAN

8.      MAGNUS

9.      FREDERIK

10. VICTOR

 

SOURCE: Danmarks Statistik, http://dst.dk/Statistik/Navne/NamesPop.aspx

 

 

The first thing I noticed is that Denmark and the US share the same #1 baby name for girls — Emma. Clearly, Emma is resonating across cultures. I’d say it’s well-deserved because it’s a beautiful name. The #1 US boys’ name is Jacob and that lands at #26 on Denmark’s list.

 

The next thing I noticed is that the baby names on these Top 10 Lists are an interesting mix of names that you can imagine hearing on a playground here in the US, like Noah, and names that have a distinctly international flair, such as Lærke.

 

In my research, I found some other great names that ranked in the Top 50 :

 

 

DANISH GIRL NAMES

 

AMALIE

ASTA

ASTRID

CAMILLA

CELINA

FRIDA

KATRINE

LIVA

MALOU

NAJA

NANNA

NICOLINE

SIGNE

TILDE

 

 

 

DANISH BOY NAMES

 

AKSEL

ANDERS

AUGUST

GUSTAV

HJALTE

JACOB

JEPPE

KASPER

LASSE

MARIUS

MATHIAS

NICKLAS

OSCAR

RASMUS

SIMON

VALDEMAR

VILLADS

 

 

If you want to check out the full Top 50 Most Popular Baby Names in Denmark, go here. If you want to find out how popular a particular name is in Denmark go here (I found out there were 3718 women named Amanda in 2007, but no “Amanda Barden.” Not a huge surprise, I guess.).

 

What’s your favorite Danish name? Post your thoughts! Subscribe to the RSS feed while you’re at it so you don’t miss any future posts.

 

 

♥  Amanda

 

 

If you have baby name questions for me, email me at amanda@amandabarden.com.

Your question might appear in a future edition of Ask Amanda.