<<Print>>

German chancellor, Angela Merkel, has a new namesake: a refugee’s baby from Ghana.

The baby Angela Merkel Ade was born on 2 February and lives with her mother and 730 other asylum seekers in a former hospital that was turned into a refugee shelter in Hanover, the German news agency DPA reported.

Angela’s 26-year-old mother, Ophelya Ade, was quoted as saying that she chose her daughter’s name because the German chancellor “is a very good woman, I like her”.

Rules for name-giving in Germany are very strict, and last names cannot usually be used as first or middle names. City spokesman Alexis Demos couldn’t immediately tell the Associated Press why Angela Merkel was accepted as a first name.

Last month Merkel, the chancellor, had an emotional encounter with a Palestinian teenager which left her momentarily speechless and went viral. Merkel was unable to adequately explain to the girl, Reem, why she faced the threat of deportation, but rubbed her shoulder as she sobbed.

German officials subsequently said the girl would be allowed to stay in the country.