Baby ‘Angela Merkel’ Named By Ghanaian Refugee Seeking Asylum In Germany

The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, is highly regarded by a woman from Ghana who is seeking to stay in Germany. Merkel is so highly regarded, in fact, that the woman named her own baby after the German chancellor.

A baby, Angela Merkel, was named by the Ghanaian refugee seeking asylum in Germany. The 26-year-old mother, Ophelya Ade, had the girl on February 2 in the German city of Hanover and named her Angela Merkel Ade. However, German news only broke the story this week. According to Newsweek, the mother and her two daughters live in a hospital which has been transformed into a home for refugees who await approval of their asylum claims.

Germany already approved baby Angela’s mother’s claims of asylum earlier this year, according to Reuters. She has a three-year residency permit.

Baby Angela Merkel was so named because her mother was grateful for being allowed to stay in Germany. Ade believes the German chancellor “is a very good woman, I like her” and that the baby’s name means “hope.”

Many people are fleeing war-torn and impoverished countries, and the migrants are continuously arriving in western Europe looking for a safe place to stay. Germany is expecting around 450,000 immigrants to arrive this year, according to Reuters. In the first half of 2015, Germany processed 160,000 asylum applications.

Angela Merkel was criticized and accused of being insensitive when she told a tearful Palestinian girl on a television show that she may not be able to stay in the country.

“You’re right in front of me now and you’re an extremely nice person. But you also know in the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon are thousands and thousands and if we were to say you can all come… we just can’t manage it.”

Merkel comforted the girl and the girl’s family was later allowed to stay in Germany, according to Newsweek.

Amazingly, baby Angela Merkel did not have to change her name. Normally first and middle names cannot be last names and will not be approved by German registry offices. However, baby Angela Merkel Ade was allowed to keep her name without incident.

[Photos by EPA; Sean Gallup/Getty Images News]