Switzerland Today
Dear Swiss Abroad,
Swiss parents were not very creative with baby names in 2024: the most popular ones remain the same as in 2023, with a few regional nuances.
And 80 years after the end of the Second World War, a petition calls on the canton of Thurgau to publicly remember its policy of rebuffing Jews on its border with Germany.
Emma and Noah are – once again – the top baby names in Switzerland. Shorter names remain in fashion with the average length cut in half over the last few decades.
For the fourth time in the last five years, Emma is the most popular name for baby girls in 2024. Mia and Sofia complete the top three nationally.
In the boys’ category, there was no upheaval either, as Noah came out on top again. Liam and Matteo remain his closest competitors, as they have every year since 2019.
This year’s list confirms a trend that has been growing for four decades: the shortening of fashionable names. While the most used girls’ names in the 60s had almost eight letters, that number has fallen below five. Among boys, the number of characters has gone from more than seven to less than five characters between 1984 and 2024.
On Thursday, the Federal Supreme Court upheld the conviction of Islamist Tariq Ramadan for rape.
The Swiss Supreme Court issued a long-awaited court decision on Thursday. It rejected the appeal of Tariq Ramadan, who had been found guilty of rape and sexual coercion in 2024 by the Geneva Court of Justice.
The facts date back to the night of October 28 to 29, 2008 in a hotel located near the Cornavin train station in Geneva.
Tariq Ramadan was acquitted in the first instance, but sentenced to three years , including one year in prison, in the second instance.
He has now been definitively convicted by the Swiss courts. His lawyers have announced that they will refer the case to the European Court of Human Rights.
In dire need of housing, the city of Zurich is ramping up pressure on its tenants. Apartments that are considered under-occupied are in the firing line.
Zurich is facing the most acute housing shortage in Switzerland. This is why, as early as 2019, the city enacted rules relating to the rental of the apartments it owns. After a five-year transition period, it is now hardening its stance.
The city intends to focus on highly underoccupied housing. For example, if a person lives alone in a four-room apartment, they will be contacted in writing and asked to take action. They can either bump up the occupancy rate or look for a new apartment.
Termination of the lease is only considered as a last resort and replacement accommodation is offered to tenants beforehand. Currently, about 1,100 municipal apartments are considered underoccupied. Of these, about 150 are severely underoccupied, according to Kornel Ringli of the real estate department of the city of Zurich.
During the Second World War, the canton of Thurgau in eastern Switzerland applied a particularly harsh policy towards Jewish refugees. Daniel Frischknecht, president of the Swiss Federal Democratic Union, has launched a petition calling for the authorities to publicly assume their responsibilities and for these facts to be taught in schools.
While the Swiss government relaxed its legislation in 1944, local authorities continued to push men, women and children back to Nazi Germany, often condemning them to certain death.
In his petition, Daniel Frischknecht, who works as a psychologist in Romanshorn, calls for “serious and visible work on this dark chapter [of] the past”, which is even more necessary now that the cantons of Bern and St. Gallen are planning the erection of places of remembrance.
Although the responsibility of the leaders at the time was established, the destruction of many files in 1958 prevented a complete reconstruction of the facts. In the Lake Constance region, however, attitudes are beginning to change: in neighbouring Germany, a street named after an official involved was recently renamed, a sign that history is gradually catching up with the buried past.
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