Germany unveils most popular names among welfare recipients

(MENAFN) Newly updated government data shows that ‘Mohammed’ and ‘Ahmad’ are among the most frequent names of welfare recipients in Germany, with ‘Olena’—a Ukrainian form of Helen—being the only female name in the top ten.

Germany’s unemployment rate hit 6.4% in August, pushing the total number of unemployed over 3 million for the first time in ten years. By the end of 2024, 5.42 million people were receiving welfare benefits, with nearly half (48%) being foreigners, a significant rise from 19.6% in 2010, according to the Federal Employment Agency.

The right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party requested the name data to support its claims of integration failures. Earlier figures listed common names like ‘Michael,’ ‘Andreas,’ and ‘Thomas’ separately, but the revised report combined variant spellings—placing ‘Mohammed’ (with 19 spelling variations) at the top with nearly 40,000 recipients, followed by ‘Michael’ and ‘Ahmad.’ ‘Olena’ remained the only female name in the top ten.

Germany is the EU’s leading destination for migrants and the world’s third-largest host of refugees, according to UN data. Since the 2015 migrant influx, when over a million people arrived mainly from Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq, the country has also granted temporary protection to 1.2 million Ukrainians and processed 334,000 asylum applications in 2023—almost a third of the EU total.

The ongoing migrant crisis has strained housing, public services, and finances, fueling the rise of the AfD, which recently topped national polls. Despite winning 152 seats in February’s federal election, the AfD was excluded from coalition talks and has been classified as a “confirmed extremist entity” by Germany’s domestic intelligence agency. Efforts continue to legally ban the party.

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