New Zealanders’ favourite names for baby boys are short (four letters or less in many cases) and have a Victorian flavour to them. The top three choices of names could all have been plucked from Charles Dickens novels.
The most popular names for boys registered in 2016 revealed little change in the top three from the previous year.
About 61,000 births were recorded during the year and 18,000 of them were given unique first names, reflecting the efforts of parents to find distinctive names for their children.
Favourite names
(2015 place in brackets):
1. Oliver (1)
2. Jack (2)
3. William (3)
4. Mason (6)
5. James (4)
6. Hunter (7)
7. Noah (11)
8. Lucas (14)
9. Leo (24)
10. Max (13)
Source: Department of Internal Affairs, New Zealand.
New Zealanders’ favourite names for baby girls Ι The worst names for New Zealand babies
