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The names we gave to our newborn babies: 2012

Supplied by the Victorian Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, the most popular names given to baby boys and girls born in this state have appeared in print. I realise this is a somewhat biased sample of baby names, given that 26% of Australian citizens were born overseas. So don’t expect too many Anastasias and Antonios.

However of those babies born here, the most popular names are usefully divided by decade, facilitating comparisons over the century since Australia became an independent, federated nation (1/1/1901). Below I have given the top ten names, for boys and for girls, for selected decades.


Girls 1900s
Ethel   Amy  Ida  Mary  Myrtle  Charlotte  Elsie  Eva  Florence  Grace

1940s  (I was born and named Helen, along with half my class at school).  Margaret  Judith   Helen   Patricia   Lynette  Barbara   Pamela   Lorraine   Beverley  Jennifer

1970s  (my children went to school, filled with Lisas and Melissas).  Michelle  Nicole  Lisa  Melissa  Kylie  Rebecca  Sarah  Amanda  Joanne  Belinda

2000s  (my grandchildren started school, with heaps of Chloes and Mias. Soft endings with vowels seem de rigueur, for girls).  Olivia  Emily  Chloe  Ella  Jessica  Isabella  Charlotte  Mia  Grace  Sarah

**

The boys names were more predictable and somewhat less changing. Anglo-Saxon names were more popular for the first 50 years, then much loved Biblical names remained popular for the next 60 years. Almost every male name ends in a consonant.

Boys 1900
George  Ernest  Alan  Arthur  Harold  Jack  James  John  William  Alfred

1950s
Peter  John  Robert  David  Michael  Stephen  Ian  Gregory  Paul  Gary

1990s
Matthew James Daniel Joshua Michael Thomas  Nicholas Jack  Benjamin  Luke

**

I think we can classify 110 years of baby names into three groups. Firstly some names like Charlotte, Amy, Grace, William and James never lost their popularity, decade after decade. Secondly some names were very popular 100 years ago and have re-emerged only recently eg Ruby, Sarah. And thirdly some names were extremely popular at the turn of last century but have faded away. These days very few babies seem to be called Arthur, Horace, Florence, Mabel or Ethel.
 
Environmentally-specific names, eg Moonbeam or Tigerlily for the children of flower power parents, did not seem to catch on. This was probably true, even in the wild 1960s. Film and sports stars' names did not gain popularity either - there won't be very many children in Australian primary schools in 2020 called Phoenix, Ashton, Javier or Cruz. Finally I had expected to find girls being given names that represented Christian virtues, at least in the early days of Australian Federation. But the names Prudence, Charity, Constance and Mercy did not become extremely popular with parents of newborns. Grace was the exception.

The Australian Jewish News recorded the most popular names for Jewish babies in 2010 as well. Although there were no New Testament names (Luke, Matthew or James), Old Testament names were the most likely to be chosen for newborn boys. Jacob, Benjamin, Asher and Zachary were clear winners. For newborn girls, parents felt totally free to give non-Biblical names. Mia, Ashley, Tali, Zoe and Romy were the runaway favourites.

How predictable parents are. I feel a PhD thesis coming on :)

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