German Names

Short and curt.

Last-name-first-name with a romantic but dangerous edge.

The way Wilhelm is pronounced anyway, so a pointless spelling variation.

Brings to mind phrases like "I vanda new bike" or "I vanda go home".

One you might like for its cozy meaning, but there is that Pied Piper rat connection.

Old man's name just conceivable for a girl--makes a new spin on Wendy.

Writer James Baldwin could make this an inspirational choice for a child of either sex.

Cute tomboyish diminutive that's popular in Germany but has not spread far. An interesting choice for the parent who wants an elaborate feminine proper name with a modern short form.

Feminine spin on Arnold that received a brief flurry of use in the early 1990s.

Spelling variation of Amalia, rising in popularity throughout Europe.

Natz recommended.

This is one of the least known or used of the Theo names, quite possibly because of its last syllable. In Samuel Butler's 1903 novel The Way of All Flesh, there is a clergyman character named Theobald Pontifex.

Rebekka is a more creative spelling -- at least in some people's opinion -- of the biblical favorite Rebecca. Rebekka is also the usual German version. The Rebekkah spelling was commonly used in Early America.

In the US, Emmanuel has held steady around the Top 200 for a quarter century now, but this variation has dropped off the Top 1000 for three of the past seven years. It was Number 974 in 2016.

Name of Faulkner's great emotional villain in As I Lay Dying, Anse is not ordinarily used as a first name. It literally means cove in French, though the element ans means God in Old German and is found in names such as Ansel and Anselm.

A name used in Germany and Holland as a form of Jerome, it's the unlikely moniker of fictional detective Hieronymous "Harry" Bosch.

A German occupational surname deriving from the German word Bad, meaning "bath". Its most famous bearer in recent years has been (the notorious) RBG – former Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, making this a great feminist name or a nod to a lawyer in the family. Its simple, dynamic, er-ending sound fits right in with the likes of Hunter, Carter and Baker.