What are the stereotypical male and female names of your country?
January 18, 2025
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31 comments
Kari (female).
Ola (male).
“Kari Nordmann” and “Ola Nordmann” are names commonly given as the standard female and male Norwegian.
The most common names in Denmark would be Anne and Peter Nielsen.
Jiří and Jana are the most common first names. The most common last name is Novák/Nováková.
Italy:
Mario (male)
Maria (female)
It depends on the area that you live in. In south Italy they have different stereotypical names from northern Italy ones
Matti (male)
Maija (female)
The ”placeholder” last name is Meikäläinen.
There isn’t like an official one. Not like John Doe. But Jón Jónsson I’ve seen. Possibly Jóna Jónsdóttir for females.
In Croatia its Ivan for males and Marija for females. Most prevalent surname is Horvat (Hrvat –> meaning Croatian)
I was actually checking that in the webpage of our statistics National institute. Most common names for adults Maria Carmen and Antonio, for babies Lucia and Hugo (which I hate, it sounds like a dog’s name). And the most common surname García.
Ola and Kari already mentioned… They said the most common name combination (first name + surname) in Norway was Jan Johansen… In such a way that the national broadcaster (NRK) made a tv program about people having the name Jan Johansen..travelling around meeting them, trying to find what they had in common..
The classic British, or at least English, everyday name was always John Smith, or Jane Smith for a woman.
However John and Jane are nowhere near as popular as they used to be. The top girls name has been Olivia for years and years now whilst Oliver, Noah and Mohammed are the most popular boys names.
After Smith the most popular surnames are Jones (which is extremely common in Wales) and Williams.
So a typical modern English couple might be Olivia and Noah Williams.
But, when it comes to using a generic name to indicate any random person without using an actual name we always use Joe Bloggs.
I’ve never met anybody with the surname Bloggs so no idea where it came from.
🇵🇹 for women Maria and Ana, for men you can’t escape João 😅
Go to any crowed place in Portugal and scream the name João Pedro and you Will have a bunch of men asking what you want!
In Poland it would ba Jan Kowalski and Janina Kowalska. I still remeber ot was used as example on mailboxes to show how to properly put a name on envelope.
In both Germany and Switzerland, the equivalents of John Doe are the same: Max Mustermann (male) and Erika Mustermann (female) are the formal placeholder names used in documents or examples. I’ve also seen Maria Bernasconi often in Switzerland.
For the anonymous or average person, in Germany it’s „Otto Normalverbraucher“ (male) and „Lieschen Müller“ (female) that are the stereotypical names for „the average Joe.“ In the Swiss-German part of Switzerland we might use general names like Hans Meier (male) or Anna Müller (female).
In Russia male names are Ivan (Russian version is Vanya) and Peter (Petya/Pyotr). Most stereotypical name + surname are Ivan Ivanov and Pyotr Petrov. For female names I think it’s Maria (Masha) and Kate (Katya).
Franc is the most common male name, but Janez is the most stereotypical. Luka for the past 3 or 4 decades, as no one is named Franc or Janez anymore.
The most common for women is Marija, but again, no one’s named that anymore. Ana is probably the most consistent but Eva is probably the most common in the past 3 decades.
Novak is the most common last name.
When you need a name to tell a joke, you use Fritz or Hans. Actual people with these names are often born pre-WW2, though.
For females, Vreni or Susi, but these are grandmothers now too.
The most syereotypical would be **Jan** and **Maria**, though they’re not on the top of the popularity list.
The most common name in Poland, by far, is Anna. Over 1 million women of that name.
Stereotypical names would be, in order of the number of people bearing them,
Female:
Aoife (e pha)
Siobhan (sheh von)
Padraig (I think this is pod rig)
Caoimhe (Key vah)
But most people don’t have Irish names. And I personally don’t know how to pronounce some Irish names as they aren’t common.
For example, Aoibhinn.
Not so prevalent these days but in Romania Ioan/Ion for male (John) and Maria/Elena for females
In Greece is Giorgios (George) for men and Maria for women
Portugal
Female: Maria
Male: I have some doubs but might be something between José or João which is the equivalent of Joseph and John in the english language.
In Hungary, it’s József (m) and Mária (f). Both were the most common names for ages, but they are rarely given nowadays.
The average would be Átlag Józsi
Maybe Kis Pista (István).
edit to add: The most common surname is Tóth
Some stereotypical Hungarian names for men:
János (John), József (Joseph), László (often anglicized as Leslie), Lajos (Louis), Péter
For Hungarian women:
Erzsébet (Elizabeth), Mária, Zsuzsanna (Susanna), Anna, Ildikó (related to the name Hilda)
For Facebook dwellers between 55-65 years old:
Janusz and Grażyna
Maria and Josef. Especially all old women are called Maria.
I know the biblical references but nonetheless it is funny that the most typical Austrian and Hungarian names are the same.
In portugal, they are:
Maria (female) =Marie
João (male) = John
I don’t know are well arranged seems like there are not steteorypical names, “Aleksandar” maybe a bit…Alexander on English, am reading Marija( Maria) , yes a bit too often
31 comments
Kari (female).
Ola (male).
“Kari Nordmann” and “Ola Nordmann” are names commonly given as the standard female and male Norwegian.
The most common names in Denmark would be Anne and Peter Nielsen.
Jiří and Jana are the most common first names. The most common last name is Novák/Nováková.
Italy:
Mario (male)
Maria (female)
It depends on the area that you live in. In south Italy they have different stereotypical names from northern Italy ones
Matti (male)
Maija (female)
The ”placeholder” last name is Meikäläinen.
There isn’t like an official one. Not like John Doe. But Jón Jónsson I’ve seen. Possibly Jóna Jónsdóttir for females.
In Croatia its Ivan for males and Marija for females. Most prevalent surname is Horvat (Hrvat –> meaning Croatian)
I was actually checking that in the webpage of our statistics National institute. Most common names for adults Maria Carmen and Antonio, for babies Lucia and Hugo (which I hate, it sounds like a dog’s name). And the most common surname García.
Ola and Kari already mentioned… They said the most common name combination (first name + surname) in Norway was Jan Johansen… In such a way that the national broadcaster (NRK) made a tv program about people having the name Jan Johansen..travelling around meeting them, trying to find what they had in common..
The classic British, or at least English, everyday name was always John Smith, or Jane Smith for a woman.
However John and Jane are nowhere near as popular as they used to be. The top girls name has been Olivia for years and years now whilst Oliver, Noah and Mohammed are the most popular boys names.
After Smith the most popular surnames are Jones (which is extremely common in Wales) and Williams.
So a typical modern English couple might be Olivia and Noah Williams.
But, when it comes to using a generic name to indicate any random person without using an actual name we always use Joe Bloggs.
I’ve never met anybody with the surname Bloggs so no idea where it came from.
🇵🇹 for women Maria and Ana, for men you can’t escape João 😅
Go to any crowed place in Portugal and scream the name João Pedro and you Will have a bunch of men asking what you want!
In Poland it would ba Jan Kowalski and Janina Kowalska. I still remeber ot was used as example on mailboxes to show how to properly put a name on envelope.
In both Germany and Switzerland, the equivalents of John Doe are the same: Max Mustermann (male) and Erika Mustermann (female) are the formal placeholder names used in documents or examples. I’ve also seen Maria Bernasconi often in Switzerland.
For the anonymous or average person, in Germany it’s „Otto Normalverbraucher“ (male) and „Lieschen Müller“ (female) that are the stereotypical names for „the average Joe.“ In the Swiss-German part of Switzerland we might use general names like Hans Meier (male) or Anna Müller (female).
In Russia male names are Ivan (Russian version is Vanya) and Peter (Petya/Pyotr). Most stereotypical name + surname are Ivan Ivanov and Pyotr Petrov. For female names I think it’s Maria (Masha) and Kate (Katya).
Franc is the most common male name, but Janez is the most stereotypical. Luka for the past 3 or 4 decades, as no one is named Franc or Janez anymore.
The most common for women is Marija, but again, no one’s named that anymore. Ana is probably the most consistent but Eva is probably the most common in the past 3 decades.
Novak is the most common last name.
When you need a name to tell a joke, you use Fritz or Hans. Actual people with these names are often born pre-WW2, though.
For females, Vreni or Susi, but these are grandmothers now too.
The most syereotypical would be **Jan** and **Maria**, though they’re not on the top of the popularity list.
The most common name in Poland, by far, is Anna. Over 1 million women of that name.
Stereotypical names would be, in order of the number of people bearing them,
Female: Anna, Maria, Katarzyna, Małgorzata, Agnieszka, Barbara, Ewa, Krystyna, Elżbieta, Magdalena.
Male: Piotr, Krzysztof, Andrzej, Jan, Tomasz, Paweł, Michał, Marcin, Stanisław, Jakub.
Thomas/Max were everywhere when I was growing up. For girls it’s more varied but I’ve seen a good fair share of Sanne/Olivia/Julia/Emma.
In Ireland, stereotypically everyone has a relative named Seán or Mary, with the most common surname being Murphy (Ó’Murchú)
Paddy and Mary.
Everyone has an uncle Paddy and aunty Mary
Northern Ireland:
Male:
James
Jack
Matthew
Michael
John
Female:
Jessica
Amy
Claire
Emma
Rebecca
In some areas you’ll get Irish names but tbh there doesn’t seem to be any commonality in those, it’s more a random distribution of names.
Examples include:
Male:
Eoghan (Owen)
Oisin (osh ene)
Coalan (kee lan)
Female:
Aoife (e pha)
Siobhan (sheh von)
Padraig (I think this is pod rig)
Caoimhe (Key vah)
But most people don’t have Irish names. And I personally don’t know how to pronounce some Irish names as they aren’t common.
For example, Aoibhinn.
Not so prevalent these days but in Romania Ioan/Ion for male (John) and Maria/Elena for females
In Greece is Giorgios (George) for men and Maria for women
Portugal
Female: Maria
Male: I have some doubs but might be something between José or João which is the equivalent of Joseph and John in the english language.
In Hungary, it’s József (m) and Mária (f). Both were the most common names for ages, but they are rarely given nowadays.
The average would be Átlag Józsi
Maybe Kis Pista (István).
edit to add: The most common surname is Tóth
Some stereotypical Hungarian names for men:
János (John), József (Joseph), László (often anglicized as Leslie), Lajos (Louis), Péter
For Hungarian women:
Erzsébet (Elizabeth), Mária, Zsuzsanna (Susanna), Anna, Ildikó (related to the name Hilda)
For Facebook dwellers between 55-65 years old:
Janusz and Grażyna
Maria and Josef. Especially all old women are called Maria.
I know the biblical references but nonetheless it is funny that the most typical Austrian and Hungarian names are the same.
In portugal, they are:
Maria (female) =Marie
João (male) = John
I don’t know are well arranged seems like there are not steteorypical names, “Aleksandar” maybe a bit…Alexander on English, am reading Marija( Maria) , yes a bit too often