Shock upset in Swiss baby name hit parade

Noah – the most popular name for new-born gentlemen in Switzerland since 2013 – has lost his crown to Liam, according to annual statistics published on Monday. Among the ladies, Emma pipped regular winner Mia. 

For the 42,838 girls and 45,013 boys born in Switzerland last year, short-and-sweet names remained the most popular. Overall, Emma, Mia, Sofia, Elena and Lea were the commonest for girls; Liam, Noah, Leon, Luca and Elias for boys. 

The Federal Statistical Office (FSO) said that tastes change according to the linguistic region. 

In German-speaking Switzerland the top spots were taken by Noah and Mia, in the French-speaking part of the country it was Liam and Emma, in Italian-speaking Switzerland it was Leonardo and Sofia and Romansh speakers went for Alessio and Chiara. 

Heidi not high

The picture is very different when it comes to the total population, with traditional names dominating. As can be seen on this interactive FSO site, Liam, Noah, Emma and Mia don’t even make the overall top 20. Daniel, Peter, Thomas, Hans and Christian are the most common names for Swiss males, and for females it’s Maria (by far), Anna, Ursula, Sandra and Ruth. 

The statistics also let readers look at the top 20 going back every ten years from 2018 to 1948, when the pool of names was smaller and Hans and Elisabeth were at the top (and Heidi was 13^th, before falling to 20^th ten years later and then disappearing off the charts).