Three characteristic periods (i.e., predominant period T_p, smoothed spectral predominant period T_o and Mean period T_m) were calculated in this paper based on 999 records of near field ground motions from the earthquakes in Europeand its adjacent areas. Those characteristic periods were analyzed to study the impacts of site condition, earthquake magnitude and other factors on the frequency contents of vertical and horizontal ground motions in near field, and to discuss the reasonable value of characteristic periods in current seismic design code. The results show that site condition and epicentral distance are the important factors affecting the characteristic periods of ground motions in near field, but the influence of earthquake magnitude is not obvious for the complexity of the near field ground motions. The characteristic periods of vertical and horizontal ground motions are obviously different，the ratio of vertical and horizontal ground motions becomes smaller when the stiffness of site condition decreases. This study indicates the value of characteristic periods used in current seismic design code is probably unsafe.