A new name has taken the title of the most declined baby name in New Zealand, beating 'King' for the first time in 13 years.
Royalty has long been the prevailing theme among the country's declined baby names, and 2023 was no different. Last year, 'Prince' was rejected the most by the Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, with five parents putting forward the prospective name for consideration.
The annual list of names that were declined by the Registrar-General in the last year was revealed by Te Tari Taiwhenua Department of Internal Affairs on Tuesday, with a total of 64 registrations failing to get a stamp of approval in 2023.
Other notable mentions go to AazyahRoyaal, Kingkillah, Nepher-ISIS and Fanny.
There are guidelines in place to ensure names don't cause offence, are a reasonable length and don't represent an official title or rank. The law allows the Registrar-General to decline the registration of names which fail to comply with those guidelines.
The Registrar-General reviews the names that don't meet the criteria on a case-by-case basis. Whether a name is offensive or not is a judgement call, and each name is considered in its entirety to determine whether it meets statutory criteria.
"Names are a gift, and they are an important part of a person's identity. We encourage parents to think about their child and how they might feel about their name later in life," Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages Russell Burnard said on Tuesday.
"When a name is in review, we give parents the opportunity to present the reasoning for the name. Then we make a decision, considering the balance of how the name may be perceived by the public and the Department's obligations under the law."
Below are the Registrar-General's tips for ensuring you can register your baby's name:
- don't use official titles or ranks, or names that resemble one
- don't use numeric characters or symbols, like a backslash or a punctuation mark
- avoid names that might be considered offensive
- limit the name to 70 characters, including spaces.
New parents can register their baby online using SmartStart.
The top names declined in 2023
- Prince - 5
- Bishop - 3
- III - 3
- King - 3
- Major - 3
- Royal - 3
- Messiah - 2
- Princess - 2
- Prynce - 2
- Rogue - 2
- Royale - 2
- Sovereign - 2
- AazyahRoyaal - 1
- Captain - 1
- Chief - 1
- Empress - 1
- Fanny - 1
- Isis - 1
- Jairah-King - 1
- JP - 1
- Judge - 1
- Justice - 1
- Justus - 1
- KC - 1
- Kiing - 1
- Kingkillah - 1
- Knight - 1
- Leonidas-king - 1
- Masai-King - 1
- MissTaunese - 1
- Nepher-ISIS - 1
- Notoriety - 1
- Pope - 1
- Princess-Penina - 1
- Pryncè - 1
- Queen - 1
- Rhoyael - 1
- Royaal - 1
- Royalty - 1
- Royalty-Reign - 1
- Saint-Liivoja - 1
- Sovereign-Kash - 1
- XIX - 1.
