A lot of thought goes into choosing a baby’s name, and a lot are also considered by the Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages in making the decision to decline some.
Of the nearly 60,000 babies born in 2020, Isla was the number one girls’ name while Oliver continued as top baby boys’ name for the eighth consecutive year. Isla debuted on the top 100 list in 2004.
Of the 44 names vetoed, royal names featured highly, topped by Princess and King.
“Guidelines make sure names don’t cause offence, are a reasonable length, and don’t unjustifiably resemble an official title or rank,” says registrar Jeff Montgomery.
When Scottish born Andrew Hayes suggested they call their baby Angus, his wife Hadassah quickly vetoed the idea.
“Andy always liked the name Angus, it’s a traditional and rather popular Scottish name but being from America all I could think of was Angus beef, a popular brand of meat. So that was shot down rather quickly,” says Hadassah.
From a shortlist of Pascal, Quinton, Vance-Hemi and Fraya, they chose Vance-Hemi. In considering a name they wanted to acknowledge his heritage, where he was born and God’s faithfulness through what has been a difficult time for them. Vance is Gaelic, covering his Scottish heritage, and they chose Hemi as a Maori name that translates as God is faithful.
The top Maori names in 2020 were Mia and Nikau. Both have topped the list for several years.
Taylor and Darcy were popular for both boys and girls, with a 51/49 split.
Charlotte had previously been the most popular girls name and still placed second on the list.
Amelia, Olivia, Willow, Harper, Ava, Lily, Sophie and Ella rounded out the top ten girls’ names.
Other boys’ names featured in the top ten were Jack, Noah, Leo, Lucas, George, Charlie, William, Thomas and Hunter.
There were 58,676 babies born in 2020, down 2,342 from the previous year.
There was a total of 17,749 different first names given.
Looking back to the 1955-1963 period, Susan featured as the top name eight times, with Karen taking over popularity from 1957 to 1967. David was first choice for a boy’s name each year from 1960 to 1967 before Jason rose to popularity.
Boys’ names Joshua and Jack featured in the early 2000’s while Sarah was the name of choice for girls from 1976 to 1989 before Jessica took over. Mary and John were the overall most popular baby names from when records started in 1848 until today.