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At the start of 2026, 45,777 men in Denmark had the name Peter. It is also found in the variants Petar, Peder, and Petter. Peter was the most common male name in the country, while Michael and Lars came in second and third place. 

 Female names 

The number of women in Denmark in 2023 amounted to approximately 2.98 million. The most common name was Anne. In this year, around 44,100 women bore the name. It originally derived from the name Hannah. In the ranking, it was followed by the names Mette and Kirsten.

Danish surnames

Most surnames in Denmark were created by using the patronymic tradition until hereditary surnames became mandatory in the 1820s. This was a common tradition in some of the Nordic countries. For Danish surnames, it meant to have the suffix -sen (son) or -datter (daughter) added to the father’s name. Due to the German influence, other names occurred for example from an occupation such as Møller (the operator of the mill), which was a common tradition for creating surnames in Germany. As of January 2023, Nielsen and Jensen were the most common Danish surnames.