Grandparents no longer call themselves Helga and Hans

name researcher - Grandparents no longer call themselves Helga and Hans

What are the real names of grandparents for babies and toddlers nowadays? Definitely not Helga, Ingrid, Horst and Hans anymore. Nord German name researcher Knud Bielefeld discovered this.

"The top names for the grandparent generation are Thomas and Sabine," Bielefeld told the German Press Agency in Ahrensburg. Grandmas are also named Susanne, Petra, Andrea and Claudia. For grandpas, Michael, Andreas, Stefan and Frank are at the top. "Of course, grandparents are still named Helga, Hans and so on. But then the grandchildren are often already significantly older."

Grandparents between 50 and 70 years old

For his analysis, he examined a representative sample of all names given since 1954 in different generations, i.e. about 410,000 data sets. He attributed the birth year ranges of 1954 to 1974 to the grandparent generation - these are people who are currently between 50 and 70 years old. In this age range, people are usually grandparents.

Names like Helga, Ursula, Ingrid and Gisela, as well as Hans, Klaus, Gunther and Peter, are mainly carried by people born before 1945 - and thus the great-grandparents of today's babies and toddlers.

Second names are sometimes given after great-grandparents

"When I tell people in my environment who carry today's grandparent names and don't have grandchildren yet, they almost fall off their chairs because they don't feel old enough yet," says Bielefeld about that.

Bielefeld came across the analysis of grandparent names with a focus on second name statistics. There, names like Elisabeth, Maria, Karl or Luis are currently common. "On social media, it is often assumed that the babies are also named after grandparents. But now we know: No, that's rather the great-grandmother or great-grandfather."

Instagram Account of Knud Bielefeld

1. Knud Bielefeld, the Nord German name researcher, shared his findings about modern grandparent names with the German Press Agency in Ahrensburg, Germany.
2. According to Bielefeld's analysis of names given since 1954, the top names for grandmas include Susanne, Petra, Andrea, and Claudia, while grandpas are often named Michael, Andreas, Stefan, and Frank.
3. Bielefeld examined a representative sample of about 410,000 data sets, attributing the birth year ranges of 1954 to 1974 to the grandparent generation, which are individuals currently between 50 and 70 years old.
4. Interestingly, names like Helga, Ursula, Ingrid, and Gisela, as well as Hans, Klaus, Gunther, and Peter, are mainly carried by people born before 1945 and are the great-grandparents of today's babies and toddlers.
5. Bielefeld discovered that second names can sometimes be given after great-grandparents, with names like Elisabeth, Maria, Karl, or Luis being commonly used.
6. You can follow more of Bielefeld's research and insights on his Instagram account, where he shares interesting facts about names and naming trends in different societies.

Read also:

• Severe flooding continues in southern Germany.
• Floods continue to pose a major threat in southern Germany.
• Rising floods in the southern regions
• Floods: water levels remain critical in many places