Switzerland's Most Popular Baby Names of 2016

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The Federal Agency for Statistics in Switzerland BFS collects the names of newborns in Switzerland and compiles a list of most popular baby names for each year on its website. You can look at popular names for the years 2011 to 2016 and there is also an option to filter according to region.

I have written about popular baby names in Switzerland before (2008-2010 and 2011-2013) and what becomes immediately obvious when looking at the lists is that the most popular names haven't changed over the last five years. For boys, Noah has been on top every year except 2012 when it came in second place. For girls, Emma and Mia are taking turns on the top spot.

These are the baby names that were most popular in Switzerland in 2016:

Most Popular Girls Names:

Mia
Emma
Elena
Sofia
Lena
Emilia
Lara
Anna
Laura
Mila

Most Popular Boys Names:

Noah
Liam
Gabriel
Luca
Leon
Elias
David
Samuel
Luis
Julian

Of course, these overall statistics are influenced by the ratio of native Swiss German speakers to native speakers of French, Italian and Rumantsch. Since there are more Swiss German speaking parents of newborns, there are simply more names of children that are typical for the German speaking part of Switzerland.

Popular Baby Names in the French and Italian Speaking Parts of Switzerland

If you use the filter option and look at names from a specific region in Switzerland, e.g. the french speaking part or the Italian speaking part, you'll notice that the top names are different. In French, Gabriel and Liam are most popular for boys and Emma and Alice for girls. In Italian, Leonardo and Sofia occupy the top spots, and in Rumantsch two more traditional names appear on top: Laurin and Valentina.

For comparing the names of newborns over the years, check popular Swiss baby names for 2008-2010 and the Swiss Baby Name Charts for 2011-2013.

Source: www.bfs.admin.ch

© 2018 IRENE WYRSCH "A HUMOROUS GUIDE TO SWITZERLAND" ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

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