Department of Internal Affairs releases their top 20 Māori baby names with mistakes again.
Mia features in the girls names for the second year in a row. Despite Mia not being a Māori name. Māori language expert Tāwhirimātea Williams also publicly stated this with the 2018 list after myself and others stated it was not a Māori name.
Other names of concern are Ari which is Hebrew and often a shortened version of a name. Other names should be checked in a dictionary to avoid further issues.
Last year, DIA stated that although Te Taura Whiri advised with the names, they only identified names that could phonetically be Māori names.
For a list of Māori names and their English translation see my list.
2019’S Top 10 Māori Girls and Boys names.
Girls
Mia
Aria
Maia
Amaia
Nina
Manaia
Kaia
Aroha
Tui
Ataahua
Boys
Nikau
MIkaere
Ari
Manaia
Mateo
Te Ariki
Taika
Ariki
Kauri
Rawiri
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