At any given time, some names are more fashionable than others, and Germany is no exception. If you ask people who were born in the 1960s what their names are, the women will often be Elisabeth, Petra, Claudia, Sabine or Karin. At that time, men were often called Stefan, Thomas, Michael, Frank, Martin and Christian.

Today, names are completely different. In the past few years, the names Laura, Anna, Lara, and Lea have topped the list for girls. For boys, it's Jonas, Luca, Elias, and Tim.

Interestingly, children are now given names that were popular a long time ago, like Marie, Sophie, Alexander and Paul. So, many German children now share the same names as their great-grandparents.

Other names have always been fashionable: given names like Max and Anna, for example, are common in any generation.