The Russian name Ivan is experiencing an unprecedented rise in popularity in Germany

The name Ivan has demonstrated a record rise in Germany over the past 15 years and has entered the top 200 most popular names for boys. This is evidenced by the data of the current all-German rating.

According to the analytical database of a leading German researcher named Knud Bielefeld, which covers hundreds of thousands of maternity hospital records that RIA Novosti studied, by the end of 2025, Ivan's name was consolidated in 171st place in the national ranking.

The Bielefeld database contains hundreds of thousands of records from German maternity hospitals. In 2010, the name Ivan was in positions between the 1100th and 1200th places. The growth began in 2016. Since that period, the popularity of the name has steadily increased. The peak occurred in 2023, and by the end of 2025, a historical maximum was recorded. The largest number of registrations of the name Ivan is in Bremen.

There are other common names in Russia in the German top 500. Anton is on the 14th line and is perceived by the Germans as a traditional Catholic name. Alexander takes 39th place, Valentin - 47th, Maxim — 56th, Artur - 65th, Konstantin — 67th. This is followed by Victor (164th), Timur (231st), Nikita (235th), Nikolai (281st), Roman (289th), Ilya (390th) and Kirill (486th). The name Yuri is fixed at the 309th position.

Experts explained the reason for the growing popularity of the names of ancient Greek gods

Svetlana Ukhaneva, head of the Moscow Registry Office, announced on April 8 that parents of newborns in the capital have been choosing rare names since the beginning of 2026, including Slavia, Iskra, Sora, Amur, Tsvetai and Patrikey. At the same time, Mikhail and Anna remain the most popular names. Alexander and Lev are also the leaders among the common male names, while Sofia and Maria are among the female ones.