German forenames after the war

[Andy008]

Am I right in thinking that names the same as those of Nazi officials rapidly dropped in popularity after the war? You very rarely hear of Germans by the names of Heinrich, Erwin, Reynhard, Adolf, Josef, etc.

[shaneystar]

Only amongst the older generation....those born before the war. We have an uncle Erwin in Germany.He is 92 ! These were old fashioned names to start with much like Oswald, Cedric and Algernon here.But it is true I think that the Germans after the war didn't use these names much for their children.Certainly not Adolf anyway .My husband born in 1946 went to school with a boy called Heinrich.They are still friends.He is godfather to our children.It's just a form of Henry which you don't hear much of here these days either.

[Johnmof]

You also don't get many British royals referring to themselves as Saxe-Coburg Gotha any more.

[Xollob]

I personally know Germans born after the war called Heinrich, Erwin and Josef. Also Reinhard (the more usual spelling of Reynhard). Here are two lists from 1940 and 1950 to compare. Heinrich and Erwin became less popular but by no means uncommon; Reinhard and Josef gained in popularity.

The only no-no after the war seems to be Adolf.

[jno]

fashions in names change all the time, and more quickly now than ever. As shaneystar says, Henry used to be a common English name (eight kings, for a start) and now is fairly rare. Conversely, there have been very few Queen Kylies in the past but you wouldn't bet against it in the future. I imagine this is pretty much true for Germans as well; hard to say what is reaction against the war and what is just a change in taste. Adolf is very rare now, but it's quite possible it will start to reappear in another couple of generations.

[shaneystar]

And the top ten german boys names for 2004 were
1. Maximilian
2. Alexander
3. Paul
4. Leon
5. Lucas
6. Luca
7. Felix
8. Jonas
9. Tim
10. David

[jno]

hmmm... not very Germanic names at all there, shaneystar, except perhaps Maximilian. Perhaps they really are trying to forget German history, as Andy's question suggested?