2026 Baby Girl Names in Germany: Trending Names and Their Meanings

Which girl names will lead in Germany in 2026? The honest answer is that no list can tell us yet. The names of babies born in 2026 are only compiled after the year ends; the Gesellschaft für deutsche Sprache (GfdS) published even its 2025 list on 9 June 2026. So this article makes no forecast. The latest data are for 2025, and we use two separate compasses to show which way names moved between 2021 and 2025.

Two compasses, two separate sources

Germany's federal statistics office does not publish a national first-name ranking. We therefore use two sources and never mix them in the same table:

• GfdS (first compass): the Wiesbaden-based language society compiles reports from register offices (Standesämter) and publishes a Germany-wide list every year. Only the top 10 are public, and no counts are given. We use the ranks only.
• Knud Bielefeld, beliebte-vornamen.de (second compass): the site of a private name researcher. According to its 2025 method note it is based on a sample of about 250,000 birth reports, roughly 40% of births. It is not official statistics, and it too publishes ranks only.

Both sources merge similar-sounding spellings (the GfdS counts Sophia and Sofia, Hanna and Hannah as one name) and count first names only.

First compass: the GfdS top 10, 2021–2025

The table shows the five-year ranks of the 2025 top-10 names. "–" means the name was not in the top 10 that year.

Direction arrows

• Up: Sophia/Sofia rose from 3 to 1, Emma from 4 to 2, Lina from 7 to 5 and Ella from 8 to 6; Mia and Klara/Clara each gained one place.
• Down: Hanna/Hannah fell from 2 to 7, the biggest drop among the 2025 top 10 over the five years. Mila slipped from 6 to 9 and Emilia from 1 to 3.
• Newcomer: Lia/Liah entered the top 10 in 2023 and has been 10th for three years.
• Brief guests: Lea/Leah appeared in the top 10 only in 2021, Marie only in 2022.
• Stable core: 9 of the 2025 top-10 names were in the top 10 in every one of the five years.

On the GfdS side, then, the picture is steady: the same names swap a few places. The clearer movement is outside the top 10.

Second compass: beyond the top 10 (private sample)

Every rank in this section comes from Knud Bielefeld's private sample, not from the GfdS. Our criterion is simple: girls' names in Bielefeld's 2025 top 100 that have climbed at least 30 places since 2021. 16 names qualify.

Two different speeds

• A little higher every year: Eliana, Cleo, Livia, Ayla, Arya, Alea and Amalia ranked better than the year before in every year from 2021 to 2025 in Bielefeld's sample.
• A jump in the last year: Alia was 124th in 2024 and 61st in 2025, 63 places in a single year. Eliana (36), Rosa (31), Cleo (29) and Amara (27) also took big steps from 2024 to 2025.
• Bielefeld's own note: his 2025 page also lists Alia, Amalia, Aurelia, Ayla, Eliana and Livia among the names on the rise.

This table is not a 2026 forecast; it only shows the movement seen in the private sample between 2021 and 2025.

Names of Arabic and Turkish origin

Several risers have Turkish or Arabic roots. Ayla and Aylin are Turkish in origin. Mariam is a Latin-letter spelling of Maryam; Maryam (Mary) is the only woman named in the Qur'an. Alia is known as a Latin spelling of the Arabic names Aliya/Alya (it also has a separate old German origin), and Alea is a variant of Aaliyah. Lina, in the GfdS top 10, also has an Arabic root among its origins ("soft, gentle"). The data show that these names are rising in the sample; they say nothing about why.

Abjad: similar sound, different letter

Abjad is calculated with Arabic letters, so we take the value of a German name from its established spelling in Arabic script; the values in the tables are the sums of the classical Abjad numbers of those letters.

A small example: Alia and Alea. In Latin letters the two names look almost identical, but in Arabic they start differently. Alia is written with the letter ʿayn: عالية = 70 + 1 + 30 + 10 + 5 = 116. Alea is written with alif: أليا = 1 + 30 + 10 + 1 = 42. A similar sound, a gap of 74.

• First letters: 10 of the 16 risers begin with a Fire letter (alif or mim); Alia, Livia, Liana, Liv and Rosa with an Earth letter (ع, ل, ر), and Cleo with a Water letter (ك). None begins with an Air letter. This follows the classical classification used on our site; some authors classify differently.
• Extremes: the highest value is Mariam's 290 (مريم), the lowest Ayla's and Alea's 42. Ella (إيلا) from the top 10 is also 42, so three names meet at the same number.
• Choice of spelling: Alia gives 111 written علياء and 112 written عاليا. Liana gives 96 with ليانة and 92 with ليانا; Eliana 93 with إليانا and 103 with إيليانا.

None of these numbers makes a name good or weak on its own. In the tradition, what matters is the picture the name's letters and elements form together with the mother's and father's names; the child's star chart also needs the mother's name.

Before you choose a trending name: a five-question checklist

1. Which list is the name rising in? The GfdS top 10 or a private sample? They do not carry the same weight.
2. Which spelling? Names that look almost the same in Latin letters can diverge in Abjad; Alia (عالية, 116) and Alea (أليا, 42) are the clearest example.
3. Which language does the meaning come from? Names such as Lina, Alia or Alma have several origins. Knowing the meaning your family intends is also the first step to the right spelling.
4. How often will you hear it? Top-10 names are heard often at nursery and school; risers from the lower part of the top 100 less so.
5. What picture does it form with your family? The Abjad value alone is not a result; compatibility with the parents' names is what our paid reports are about.

This article is for information only. Abjad interpretations are based on tradition and contain no definitive judgement or guarantee about any name. No ranking forecast for 2026 is made.

Source: Gesellschaft für deutsche Sprache (GfdS), "Die beliebtesten Vornamen 2021"–"2025", first-name (Erstname) list, Germany-wide; gfds.de/vornamen/beliebteste-vornamen. The GfdS publishes only the top 10 with percentage shares, not exact counts; Germany has no official federal first-name statistics. Ranks outside the top 10: Knud Bielefeld, beliebte-vornamen.de, "Die beliebtesten Vornamen des Jahres 2021–2025" (private sample, not official statistics).