Mamma mia: The birth rate in Italy is heading towards a historic low. Last year only 379,890 children were born in the EU country – a decrease of 3.4 percent compared to 2022. According to the national statistics office, the birth rate fell to a statistical 1.20 children per woman. The previous minus record from 1995 is 1.19. The low birth rate in the once child-rich country has been one of Italy’s major problems for decades.
At the same time, the statistics office published the annual list of the most popular Italian children’s names, which future German parents also like to follow as an example. As since 2018, Leonardo remained in first place among the boys, followed by Edoardo and Tommaso. As in the previous year, Sofia and Aurora were in the lead among the girls. Ginevra came in third place.
In Germany, Italian first names have been very popular for decades: in the 1960s, for example, Guido, today, for example, Matteo. Last year, Sofia (or Sophia) was in first place for girls’ names in the Federal Republic of Germany, while Emilia was in second place. Among the boys, Noah was in the lead in 2023, followed by Matteo (in different spellings) and Leon. It usually takes a few years for the naming trends from Italy to arrive in Germany – and not all of them catch on.