Modern names from the Civil Registration System (CPR)

In 1971 the then existing Department of Name Research got the possibility of having a complete print-out of names from the Civil Registration System (CPR) which had been established in 1967. The material consists of so-called "leporello-lists" (lists of continuous stationery).

There is also a newer set of printed raw data from 1985 containing all first names plus statistical material showing the frequency of each name's occurrence.

The Names of the Danes

The database Danskernes Navne (The Names of the Danes) from 2005 is the web based replacement of the printed lists of names. The searchable database contains all personal names in the CPR-registration in 2005 including names of persons who had died in the period between 1967, at the establishment of the CPR, and 2005. The database contains a total of about 20 million names.

In order to make the numerical material compatible with the name statistics from Statistics Denmark the names of persons who have moved permanently from Denmark have been removed. The Names of the Danes is the only place where it is possible to see the geographical distribution and occurrence over time of first, middle and last names.

The CPR register primarily includes people who were alive in 1967 or born later, but in a number of cases it has been necessary to give CPR-numbers to deceased persons e.g. in connection with inheritance matters – thus the oldest person in the registration was born in 1835. The database gives a rather detailed view of the use of names at the end of the 19th century and all of the 20th century. If you want to study the use of names in the 1800s material can be found in the Danish Demographic Database on the homepage of the Danish State Archives.