Contents

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Contents

The Australian Top 10.......................................................................................................................................3 More babies, less convergence................................................................................................................3 The `Hundred-Year Return' influences Australia's top baby names...............................................4 William first across four states but Oliver most popular across the nation .................................. 5 Charlotte takes a strong lead 3 years in a row .................................................................................... 5 Top 10 boy trends and insights ................................................................................................................ 5 Top 10 girl trends and insights ................................................................................................................. 5 8 new boy names and 11 new girl names in Top 100 list................................................................... 6 Most significant leaps and declines ........................................................................................................ 6 There's a ring to it ......................................................................................................................................... 7 Boys names feature less syllables ........................................................................................................... 7 Gendered names triumph and popular boys' names not just for boys......................................... 8 Creative spellings prominent, especially for girls ............................................................................... 8 Australian states versus states ................................................................................................................. 9 Rising with the stars..................................................................................................................................... 9 Religious influences strong and ongoing.............................................................................................10 We'll never be royals, but we'll name our kids after them...............................................................10 Most popular Australian royal names ..................................................................................................... 11 12 of 22 current royal names are top baby names too...................................................................... 11

New Zealand's Top 10 Baby Names .......................................................................................................... 12 New Zealand baby names see royal influence decline ................................................................... 12

Sources .............................................................................................................................................................. 13 Contact Us .................................................................................................................................................... 13

Australia's Top 100 Girls' Names................................................................................................................. 14 Australia's Top 100 Boys' Names................................................................................................................ 15 New Zealand's Top 100 Girls' Names........................................................................................................ 16 New Zealand's Top 100 Boys' Names ....................................................................................................... 17

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The Australian Top 10

Rank

Boys

Girls

1

Oliver

Charlotte

2

William

Olivia

3

Jack

Ava

4

Noah

Emily

5

Jackson/Jaxon

Mia

6

James

Amelia

7

Thomas

Ruby

8

Ethan

Sophia/Sofia

9

Lucas

Chloe

10

Cooper

Sophie

Table 1. Top 10 most popular baby names in Australia, 2013.

In 2013, 1 in 10 Australian babies were given one of the Top 10 most popular baby names ? 31,983 babies out of just over 300,000 births! There were more than 2,082 boys born named Oliver and 1,969 girls named Charlotte last year.

More babies, less convergence

While Australia is setting new records in the number of babies born per year ? having reached over 315,000 in 2013 ? parents are being more original in the baby names they choose with fewer babies being given one of the Top 20 names.

While in 2012 the Top 20 baby names accounted for 28,301 baby girls and 29,083 baby boys, these figures dropped to 26,788 baby girls and 28,198 baby boys in the 2013 calendar year.

Parents are congregating less around the most popular names as part of an ongoing trend towards choosing less common names for their newborns.

In fact, 40.6% of babies born in the 2012 calendar year were named one of the Top 100 baby names, with this figure reducing to 39.6% for the 2013 calendar year.

Parents are more likely to choose more common names for baby boys, with 9,267 baby boys in Australia given a Top 5 name in 2013, compared with only 8,239 baby girls given a Top 5 name. Growing is parental desire to impart uniqueness and individuality to their children, especially for baby girls!

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The `Hundred-Year Return' influences Australia's top baby names

The trend in baby-naming in Australia is for the traditional over the trendy.

There is a `Hundred-Year Return' theme taking place in Australia, with many of the top names of today also in the top names of a century ago, while names of a few decades ago have fallen out of favour.

Many of today's most common baby names were popular in the early 20th century and have seen a significant resurgence in the early 21st century. This is illustrated by the NSW Government, which records nearly two fifths (39%) of all of Australia's births, in an interactive baby names data visualisation.

William is an example of the `hundred-year' return, having ranked 2nd overall in NSW in the 1910s and ranking in top place again in NSW from 2009 onwards.

Jack climbed up to 5th place in the 1920s in NSW before seeing a steep decline from the 1940s to 1970s, with a marked resurgence between the year 2000 and 2004.

Ruby was a popular girls' name at the turn of the 20th century, coming to a near decline from the 19050s to 1970s but climbing significantly in popularity since the 1990s.

Figure 1 William's `Hundred-Year Return,' NSW, NSW Government

Figure 2 Jack's `Hundred-Year Return,' NSW, NSW Government

Figure 3 Ruby's 'Hundred-Year Return,' NSW, NSW Government

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William first across four states but Oliver most popular across the nation

Oliver has emerged as Australia's top boy baby name for the first time in Australia's history. Climbing steadily from a rank of 4th in 2010, 5th in 2011, and 3rd in 2012, Oliver has leaped to 1st place in 2013, overtaking both William (1st in 2010 and 2012) and Jack (1st in 2011).

Oliver was the top boys' name in three states/territories (QLD, SA, TAS), while William topped the list in four states/territories (NSW, ACT, VIC, and NT) and Jack took the lead in WA.

While William topped the list across more states than any other boys' name, numerically there were 37 more occurrences of Oliver than William across the nation. In 2013, there were 2,082 babies named Oliver, 2,045 named William, and 1,909 named Jack.

While Jack is currently in 3rd place, the strength and popularity of the name is highlighted by the rise of Jackson/Jaxon ? making its way into the Top 5 for the first time (and into the Top 10 for the first time in 2012)! If the names Jack, Jackson, and Jaxon were to be combined, they would tally 3,481 baby boys ? clearly the most popular name!

Charlotte takes a strong lead 3 years in a row

Since 2011 Charlotte has taken the lead in girls' names, remaining strong in 1st place and the choice for 1969 girls in 2013. The popularity of the name Charlotte is evident ? while last year Charlotte outnumbered the 2nd place name Ruby by only 47 occurrences, this year Charlotte tops the list with an astounding 355 more occurrences than Olivia in 2nd place.

Top 10 boy trends and insights

All of the Top 10 boys' names from 2013 have held on to their Top 10 ranking in 2014, with the most notable rise by Jackson/Jaxon climbing from 10th to 5th place. James saw a rise of two places while Noah held 4th place for the second year. Thomas and Cooper both dropped by one place, Lucas dropped by 2, and Ethan dropped 3 places in the Top 3 list.

Top 10 girl trends and insights

Sophia/Sofia has entered the Top 10 girls' list in 2013 for the first time, ahead of Sophie by two places. If the names Sophie, Sophia, and Sofia were to be combined, they would tally a total of 2,899 baby girls in 2013 and be the clear first in girls' names!

Ava has had the most significant increase in popularity since 2012, climbing 7 places from 10th to 3rd. Emily, Mia, and Amelia have each climbed by 3 rankings and Emily climbed by 2 ranks from 6th to 4th.

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The most significant decrease in popularity of the Top 10 girls' names was experienced by Lily/Lilly, dropping from 3rd place in 2012 to 12th in 2013. Ruby remained in the Top 10 list but dropped by 5 places ? from 2nd to 7th ? and Chloe and Sophie both dropped by 2 rankings.

8 new boy names and 11 new girl names in Top 100 list

The Top 100 list saw 8 new boys' names and 11 new girls' names enter the list. The names Louis, Nathaniel, Felix, Aaron, Lewis, Parker, Jett, and Seth entered the Top 100 in place of Declan, Cameron, Zac, Gabriel, Christopher, Callum, Andrew, and Muhammad which dropped out of the Top 100. The shift in baby girl names saw an entrance into the Top 100 list of Penelope, Ayla, Harriet, Daisy, Elsie, Indie, Pippa, Indigo, Nevaeh, Payton, and Ariana, which replaced 11 names which dropped below 100th: Amy, Tahlia, Kayla, Gabriella, Josephine, Mariam, Angelina, Elise, Ebony, Lacy and Lauren.

Most significant leaps and declines

Ryder, Hudson, and Lincoln had the most significant increases in popularity among boys' names ? Ryder leaped 21 places to 65th, Hudson jumped 18 places to 33rd, and Lincoln moved 17 places to 50th. Leo and George also increased their ranking by more than 10 places ? Leo jumping to 39th from 54th and George taking 60th place from 71st in the previous year. Hamish was not so lucky, experiencing the largest drop of the boys, falling 17 places to 89th. Dylan and Hayden shared in their misfortune, both names plunging 16 places to 56th and 68th, respectively. The most significant leap in girls' names was found among Aria which rose 26 places to 57th overall. Eloise, Lillian, and Evelyn saw increases of 19, 18, and 16 places, respectively. Molly experienced the biggest decline in popularity from 2012 to 2013, dropping 19 places to 57th. Jade and Caitlin both dropped 15 places and Rose, which saw a rise of 19 places from 2011 to 2012, fell 13 places in 2013 to sit at 76th.

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There's a ring to it

The rise of gentle, softer-sounding names for girls and firmer sounding names for boys is an ongoing trend with baby names in Australia. 95% of the girls' names (19) in the Top 20 list end with a vowel or `y', with over half (11) of these ending with the letter `a', producing the gentle `ah' finish. Only 1 of the Top 20 names ends with a consonant ? Maddison/Madison. On the boy's list, however, 90% of the top 20 names end with a consonant sound! `N' is most popular ending consonant for 5 names in the Top 20, and just two names in the Top 20 boys' list ? Noah and Joshua ? feature a soft `a' or `ah' ending.

Figure 4. Name Sounds and Endings in Top 20 Baby Names List, 2013.

Boys names feature less syllables

Parents are increasingly choosing longer, flowing names for their daughters and shorter, solid-sounding names for their sons. Eight girls' names (i.e. Indianna/Indiana, Elizabeth, and Penelope) have 4 syllables while only 1 boys' name (Alexander) on the Top 100 list features 4 syllables. Boys are twice as likely as girls to have a single-syllable name, and girls are twice as likely as boys to have three syllables in their name. Names most commonly have just two syllables, with two thirds (67%) of boys names and just over half (54%) of the girls names on the Top 100 list comprising of double syllables.

Figure 5. Number of Syllables in Top 100 Baby Names List, 2013.

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Gendered names triumph and popular boys' names not just for boys

Only one name in the Top 100 appears on both the girls' and boys' list in its unchanged form ? Charlie (21st on the boys' list and 71st on the girls' list when combined with Charli and Charlee). Charlie is commonly considered to be interchangeable between the two sexes.

While all of the names except Charlie are most often distinctly boys' or girls' names, a number of girls' names from the Top 100 can be interchanged for boys' names ? these include Harper, Jade, and Mackenzie. In similar fashion, parents are increasingly using popular boys' names when naming their daughters ? names such as Riley, Jayden, Tyler, Leo, Dylan, Hayden, Jordan, Luca, Ashton, Kai, Bailey, Alex, and Jesse are oftentimes used for girls.

Creative spellings prominent, especially for girls

Not content in simply finding a distinctive name for their newborn, parents are often turning to the use of apostrophes, hyphens, or emphasised phonetic spellings to make their baby's name unique. In our Top 100 list, we have combined the occurrences of names which are phonetically identical but unique in their spelling.

Parents tend to take greater liberty in amending their baby girl's name than boys' name, featuring the following examples in the Top 100 list:

? Sophia/Sofia (8th) ? Lilly/Lily (12th) ? Maddison/Madison (16th) ? Isabelle/Isabel (23rd) ? Milla/Mila (36th) ? Madeleine/Madeline (58th) ? Indiana/Indianna (62nd) ? Charlie/Charli/Charlee (71st)

The presence of double letters is also an occurrence more frequently observed in popular girls' names, as evidenced in 28 girls' names and just 11 boys' names in the Top 100 list:

Girls: Charlotte, Isabella, Lilly, Ella, Sienna, Maddison, Emma, Isabelle, Hannah, Scarlett, Willow, Milla, Summer, Jessica, Savannah, Annabelle, Stella, Bella, Poppy, Holly, Ellie, Alyssa, Indianna, Anna, Molly, Lillian, Harriet, and Pippa.

Boys: William, Cooper, Harrison, Harry, Flynn, Connor, Matthew, Mitchell, Finn, Jesse, and Jett.

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