Top NZ Baby Names of 1917

Margaret (510) and John (900) were New Zealand's most registered names in 1917. Below are the top 50 girls' and boys' names for the year. See the whole 1910s for context.

Top 50 girls' names

  1. 1Margaret510
  2. 2Mary481
  3. 3Dorothy343
  4. 4Jean335
  5. 5Joan297
  6. 6Joyce279
  7. 7Kathleen267
  8. 8Phyllis240
  9. 9Eileen209
  10. 10Edna195
  11. 11Mavis191
  12. 12Annie174
  13. 13Gladys172
  14. 14Thelma168
  15. 15Doris166
  16. 16Marjorie166
  17. 17Florence164
  18. 18Alice149
  19. 19Elizabeth149
  20. 20Olive141
  21. 21Elsie140
  22. 22Betty131
  23. 23Ellen129
  24. 24Frances127
  25. 25Hazel118
  26. 26Nancy117
  27. 27Jessie116
  28. 28Edith114
  29. 29Ethel114
  30. 30Catherine112
  31. 31Agnes111
  32. 32Patricia111
  33. 33Evelyn109
  34. 34Iris108
  35. 35Winifred108
  36. 36Helen107
  37. 37Irene105
  38. 38Violet102
  39. 39Muriel99
  40. 40Rona95
  41. 41Lorna94
  42. 42Vera93
  43. 43Doreen87
  44. 44Rita84
  45. 45Ivy81
  46. 46Grace78
  47. 47Daphne76
  48. 48Audrey75
  49. 49Mabel74
  50. 50Hilda73

Top 50 boys' names

  1. 1John900
  2. 2William835
  3. 3James562
  4. 4Robert448
  5. 5George410
  6. 6Thomas356
  7. 7Arthur305
  8. 8Charles292
  9. 9Douglas257
  10. 10Leslie244
  11. 11Albert223
  12. 12Frederick209
  13. 13Edward205
  14. 14Eric205
  15. 15Henry200
  16. 16Ronald194
  17. 17Francis191
  18. 18David178
  19. 19Walter174
  20. 20Alfred173
  21. 21Ernest172
  22. 22Kenneth168
  23. 23Harold166
  24. 24Herbert160
  25. 25Jack158
  26. 26Alexander157
  27. 27Raymond157
  28. 28Gordon155
  29. 29Norman152
  30. 30Stanley144
  31. 31Alan126
  32. 32Donald126
  33. 33Maurice123
  34. 34Cyril122
  35. 35Leonard122
  36. 36Frank121
  37. 37Richard120
  38. 38Joseph112
  39. 39Allan110
  40. 40Ian107
  41. 41Colin104
  42. 42Reginald98
  43. 43Noel96
  44. 44Roy89
  45. 45Lloyd88
  46. 46Patrick86
  47. 47Ivan85
  48. 48Keith82
  49. 49Victor77
  50. 50Harry76

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.