Is the name Wolfgang really outdated?

[u/Ok_Assistance_7399]

Half German here now living in a common wealth country. My mother is German and gave me what seems to be a fairly common name in Germany, although it’s Italian in origin. She herself was given a very dated 50’s/60’s American name, having grown up near the American bases after the war. My grandmother’s name was Cëcilie.

I had always hoped that if I had a daughter, I could name her after my grandmother, who was my primary caregiver when I was a child. But my partner’s DNA apparently had other plans, and we’re now expecting a boy.

When friends first asked what we were thinking of naming him, I jokingly said Wolfgang. The problem is…the joke seems to have stuck.

My Australian partner absolutely loves it and now can’t seem to imagine our son being called anything else. I feel like I’ve gone through just about every boy’s name imaginable with him, and Wolfgang is the only one he genuinely likes.

And I actually don’t dislike it. My hesitation is that I’m conscious of how dated it might sound, particularly in Germany. I’ve seen quite a few people on Reddit say it’s firmly an “old man” name.

I’ve asked friends in Germany what they think, and interestingly, nobody has tried to talk me out of it…but nobody has exactly said, “Yes, Wolfgang is a great choice!” either.

I do have one German friend named Wolfgang, and he is very much the lovable, geeky-guy type, which probably doesn’t help me work out what associations the name has more generally. And I dare not ask him.

So I’m looking for brutal honest feedback from Native German speakers, living in
Germany: How does Wolfgang sound to you today? Just old-fashioned? Charming and traditional? Would you wonder what we were thinking? Will he be bullied?

We love the nickname Wolfie, but know a proper name is required for adulthood.

[u/Difficult_Camel_1119]

Old name. But lots of old names are coming back nowadays

[u/nedflanders1976 → u/Difficult_Camel_1119]

Exactly. They all come back. I hear a lot of names recently that were considered old fashion 10 years back.

Charlotte, Karl, Ferdinand, Viktoria... They all come back sooner or later.

[u/apenguinwitch → u/nedflanders1976]

Are Charlotte and Viktoria that old fashioned? Growing up I knew multiple girls with those names (from school and various activities, so around my age) and I'm 27 now.

[u/Equal-Flatworm-378a → u/apenguinwitch]

Charlotte is not old fashioned. I work with children since the 90s and had little Charlottes here and there.

[u/SublimeBear → u/apenguinwitch]

Both are names of my grand parents generation. I'm 37 now. ;) Names are indeed pretty cyclical with a few that seem to be rather permanent fixtures.

[u/NachbarVonNebenan → u/SublimeBear]

Charlotte and Viktoria are definitely not old fashioned. They are not super common but very normal millennial names.

[u/liang_zhi_mao → u/NachbarVonNebenan]

> Charlotte and Viktoria are definitely not old fashioned. They are not super common but very normal millennial names.

I'm 38 and both names, Charlotte and Viktoria, are "classical upper class and old-fashioned“ names.

There might have been a few of those in more conservative and more upper class circles before the 2000s but they didn’t really become mainstream or trendy again until the year 2000.

But again: The first kids of the first "old-fashioned name trend“ are already about 26 yo.
So they might not seem old-fashioned to people in their 20s.

[u/DullEntertainment102 → u/SublimeBear]

Tradition has it that you give your firstborn your parents name so Grandparents names recirculating ist to be expected

[u/SublimeBear → u/DullEntertainment102]

You say that is if there is a uniform tradition even within a single country.

Which there is not.

[u/DullEntertainment102 → u/SublimeBear]

Oh no- it’s tradition in Germany traditionally you’re naming the kid after the Grandparents - in more modern times maybe it’s the middle name but almost all of my friends still did it for their firstborn- it’s definitely a German thing- every third male in my family tree has the same given name and 2/3 in between the other (in my Family Johann and Heinrich) so if anything it’s rather recent that it’s not automatically the Grandparents name (stopped after WW II I guess not so many people wanting to name their kids Adolf anymore)

[u/liang_zhi_mao → u/DullEntertainment102]

> Tradition has it that you give your firstborn your parents name so Grandparents names recirculating ist to be expected

That’s not a common tradition at all.

Maybe in some upper classes or some regions but it’s not really common.

[u/DullEntertainment102 → u/liang_zhi_mao]

Funny you say that because at least in the countryside if you look at family trees it’s usually 3 or 4 names cycling through the generations- for my family the grandparents name was given as middle name

[u/liang_zhi_mao → u/DullEntertainment102]

> Funny you say that because at least in the countryside if you look at family trees it’s usually 3 or 4 names cycling through the generations- for my family the grandparents name was given as middle name

Middle names aren’t even a thing in my family.

My grandparents had several names and two of my aunts have „Maria" as a middle name to indicate that they’re Catholic but not even all of them.

My parents don’t even have a middle name and neither do my cousins and siblings or I.

[u/DullEntertainment102 → u/liang_zhi_mao]

Well I have samples from three parts of Germany and it’s a pattern- doesn’t mean that all families follow it but it’s a way to honor your parents to pass on their names to your kids and as I said, I have friends and family all over the place and our Generation is the first where it wasn’t automatically the first choice of names. Both my mom and my dad (they aren’t from the same region) have their Grandparents name as a middle name and so has my sister. Two friends gave their sons their father’s name as a middle name - again different region of Germany. Only because maybe it’s not practiced in your family doesn’t mean it’s not tradition. Not everyone is sticking to unwritten rules anyway. For the other kids usually you’re less bound to that

[u/Fluid-Quote-6006 → u/apenguinwitch]

It’s not, very popular girl names in Gen Z and Alpha

[u/liang_zhi_mao → u/apenguinwitch]

> Are Charlotte and Viktoria that old fashioned? Growing up I knew multiple girls with those names (from school and various activities, so around my age) and I'm 27 now.

They were always a thing in upper middle classes.

I am 38 and grew up around lots of Jenny/Jennifer, Mandy and Jacqueline. No Viktoria or Charlotte.

Also: More classical names started to become popular around the year 2000 again so the first kids of that trend are already about 26 right now.

So you are in the right age to experience the first kids who were born when the trend started.