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Top 100 NZ Baby Names of All Time

Every birth registration from 1954 to 2025, added up. These are the 100 names given to the most babies in Aotearoa New Zealand over the full period covered by Department of Internal Affairs data. Switch between girls, boys and the combined list, and tap any name to see how its popularity moved across the decades.

How the all-time list is built

We sum every year of registrations from 1954 to 2025 for each name. Long-running classics therefore rank higher than names that spiked hard for a few years, so treat this as a history of Kiwi naming rather than a guide to what is fashionable right now.

Spelling variants count separately, so Sophie and Sophia, or Mia and Maia, each have their own line.

The 100 most-given names of all time

  1. 01Jack
    22,871 babies
  2. 02Michael
    21,677 babies
  3. 03Oliver
    19,012 babies
  4. 04William
    17,760 babies
  5. 05Charlotte
    17,563 babies
  6. 06Andrew
    17,431 babies
  7. 07Olivia
    16,388 babies
  8. 08Ella
    15,449 babies
  9. 09David
    15,358 babies
  10. 10Noah
    15,238 babies
  11. 11Amelia
    13,880 babies
  12. 12Susan
    13,207 babies
  13. 13Christine
    12,479 babies
  14. 14Riley
    9,465 babies
  15. 15Margaret
    8,434 babies
  16. 16Maia
    6,828 babies
  17. 17Manaia
    5,943 babies
  18. 18Tāne
    5,133 babies
  19. 19Theodore
    4,839 babies
  20. 20Aroha
    4,659 babies
  21. 21Isla
    4,590 babies
  22. 22Luca
    3,919 babies
  23. 23Mila
    3,728 babies
  24. 24Nova
    3,103 babies
  25. 25Arlo
    2,930 babies
  26. 26Hazel
    2,645 babies
  27. 27Quinn
    2,227 babies
  28. 28Nikau
    2,044 babies
  29. 29Koa
    1,909 babies
  30. 30River
    1,851 babies
  31. 31Kaia
    1,625 babies
  32. 32Sage
    1,379 babies
  33. 33Mātai
    1,322 babies
  34. 34Anahera
    1,171 babies
  35. 35Wren
    828 babies
  36. 36Atlas
    813 babies
  37. 37Indi
    729 babies
  38. 38Rāwiri
    725 babies
  39. 39Marlowe
    683 babies
  40. 40Kōwhai
    639 babies

Sources & further reading

About this data: figures come from Department of Internal Affairs birth registrations for 1954-2025. The DIA only publishes a name for a given year when at least 10 babies were registered with it, so rarer names - and rarer spellings - are missing entirely, and a name can drop out of the record in quieter years. Spelling variants are counted separately, and counts reflect first names as registered.

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