Most Popular Baby Boy Names in Germany 2025 (GfdS) and Their Meanings

The most common first name given to baby boys born in Germany in 2025 was once again Noah. In the list published by the Gesellschaft für deutsche Sprache (GfdS, the Society for the German Language) in June 2026, Noah accounts for 1.48% of all boys' first names – the highest share the name reaches in our 2021–2025 data. The real movement is just behind it: Theo rose from seventh to third and Leo from twelfth to fourth.

A word of warning first: there are no counts in this list

Germany publishes no official federal statistics on first names. Since 1977 the nationwide ranking has been compiled by the GfdS, a language society based in Wiesbaden, from data supplied by local registry offices (Standesämter). It releases only the top 10 for each sex and each name's percentage share; it gives no number of babies.

The GfdS also merges spellings that sound the same: Mat(h)eo/Matt(h)eo covers Mateo, Matheo, Matteo and Mattheo, while Luca/Luka and Henry/Henri each combine two spellings. Only first names (Erstnamen) are counted; when second and further names are included, a separate overall list (Gesamtliste) results.

GfdS 2025: the top 10 boys' names

"Share" is the percentage of all first names given to boys; "2024" is the previous year's rank.

Together the ten names make up 11.11%. Only 0.08 percentage points separate Theo in third place from Henry in tenth, and Theo and Leo share exactly the same figure, 1.08%.

Who climbed, who slipped?

• Theo: 11th in 2023 according to the GfdS, 7th in 2024, 3rd in 2025 – eight places in two years.
• Leo: from 12th to 4th; in our 2021–2025 data this is its first time in the top 10.
• Emil (8 → 5) and Elias (9 → 7) also moved up.
• Leon: third four years running from 2021 to 2024, sixth in 2025.
• Luca/Luka fell from 4th to 9th, Paul from 5th to 8th, Henry/Henri from 6th to 10th. For Paul this is the lowest rank of the five years.
• Louis/Luis, tenth in 2024, is no longer in the top 10.

The GfdS attributes the rise of Theo and Leo to many parents' liking for short, punchy names. Noah, Mat(h)eo, Leon, Paul, Luca, Elias and Emil have been in the top 10 every year since 2021. Finn (2021–2022), Felix (2021), Liam (2023) and Louis/Luis (2021–2024) appeared for a while; Henry entered in 2022, Theo in 2024 and Leo in 2025.

Paul is eighth among first names but third in the overall list that also counts middle names, and third in the GfdS list of second names as well.

The regions disagree

In the GfdS regional lists Noah is first in the north, south and west, while in the east (the former East German states) Mat(h)eo leads. Leo is third in the west, Theo fourth in the north and east, Elias second in the south. Also notable: the spelling Mohammed is sixth in the northern list and eighth in the eastern list. According to the GfdS, Christian and biblical names are given more often in the south.

Ranks 11–30: from a private sample

The GfdS's full top-200 lists are sold, not published. For the ranks beyond 10, the broadest freely available source is beliebte-vornamen.de, run by name researcher Knud Bielefeld, who says he compiled about 250,000 birth announcements for 2025 (around 40% of births). This is a private sample, not official statistics, and its order differs slightly from the GfdS: Felix is tenth in Bielefeld's list and Henry eleventh.

Three climbs stand out: Mohammed from 32nd in 2021 to 16th, Adam from 35th to 24th and Carlo from 62nd to 28th. Going the other way, Finn (4th in 2021) is now 15th and Ben (7th in 2021) is 17th.

The German list through the lens of Abjad

Abjad assigns a number to each Arabic letter, so a name written in Latin letters only gets a value once an Arabic spelling is chosen. We use the spelling that is established in Arabic today; other sources may write a name differently.

A small sum: Leo, Leon and Lio

Leo: ل (30) + ي (10) + و (6) = 46. To get Leon you add a single ن (50): ليون = 96. Lio, 30th in Bielefeld's private sample, is written in Arabic exactly like Leo (ليو) – two names in Latin letters, the same 46 in Abjad. With Liam and Emil, by contrast, different letters add up to the same total (81).

It is the letter, not the length

The highest value in the top 10 belongs to Theo, whose Arabic spelling (ثيو) has just three letters: ثيو = 516, of which 500 comes from the single letter ث. The lowest is Paul: بول = 38. Sorting the initial letters by the classical scheme used in our site's reports (some authors classify differently), four names in the top 10 begin with a Fire letter (Mat(h)eo, Emil, Elias, Henry), three with Earth (Leo, Leon, Luca), two with Air (Noah, Paul) and one with Water (Theo).

A curiosity: traditional Arabic forms

Some names on the list have an old Arabic counterpart. Noah is usually written نواه today, but the Prophet Noah is called Nūḥ (نوح) in the Qur'an. Jonas and Jonah correspond to the Prophet Yūnus (يونس), named in the Qur'an; Jakob to Yaʿqūb and David to Dāwūd. For Paul, Mat(h)eo and Luca the Arabic Bible has Paul (بولس), Matthew (متى) and Luke (لوقا). Elias is written إلياس (102) in Arabic – exactly like the Prophet Ilyās in the Qur'an.

The spelling chosen changes the result; none is "more fortunate" than another, but it has to be settled before any analysis.

Myth or fact?

"The government publishes this list." No. There are no official federal first-name statistics; the list is compiled by the GfdS, a language society, from registry office data.

"Leo came out of nowhere." Not quite. Leo was already 12th in 2024; what is new in 2025 is its entry into the top 10.

"Long names have high Abjad values." No. In Arabic script, three-letter Theo (ثيو) comes to 516, four-letter Noah (نواه) to only 62.

A value on its own is not an analysis

A name's Abjad value is only the first step. In the Abjad tradition the real question is how the name forms a whole with the mother's and father's names. The child's yıldızname (star chart) is also calculated not from the child's name alone but together with the mother's name, so the same name Theo may point to a different sign and element for the child of a different mother. For families in Germany looking for a name that works in German as well as in Arabic, Adam, Elias or Noah can be a good starting point.

Source: Gesellschaft für deutsche Sprache (GfdS), "Die beliebtesten Vornamen 2025" – first-name list and regional lists, Germany-wide; gfds.de/vornamen/beliebteste-vornamen. Ranks 11–30: Knud Bielefeld, beliebte-vornamen.de, "Die beliebtesten Vornamen des Jahres 2025" (private sample, not official). The GfdS publishes only the top 10 with percentage shares and no exact counts.

Note: Ranks and shares are taken from GfdS publications; the GfdS merges spellings that sound alike. Name meanings are based on common reference works; Arabic spellings may vary by source. Abjad values and element interpretations are for information and rest on the Abjad tradition; they imply no certainty or guarantee.