The most popular Māori baby names collated by Department of Internal Affairs was names were Maia for girls and Nikau for boys. All names were verified by Te Taura Whiri to be Māori.
The list is below.
The top 20 names for girls were:
1. Maia
2. Manaia
3. Anahera
4. Ana
5. Aroha
6. Kaia
7. Hana
8. Ataahua
9. Tia
10. Kora
11. Amaia
12. Tui
13. Te Aroha
14. Kahurangi
15. Awhina
16. Manawa
17. Kara
18. Aaria
19. Rui
20. Te Ao
The top 20 names for boys were:
1. Nikau
2. Ari
3. Manaia
4. Wiremu
5. Kauri
6. Mikaere
7. Rawiri
8. Ihaia
9. Kai
10. Manaaki
11. Tai
12. Tane
13. Tamati
14. Taika
15. Kahurangi
16. Tangaroa
17. Manawa
18. Ihaka
19. Tama
20. Tawhiri
Māori names can be registered with macrons adn some of the above names could be spelt with a macron. But i wonder who worries about macrons in names especially when many computers systems and online forms in New Zealand do not recognise macrons.
There appears to be a lot of general name usage and transliterations for Christian names. Interesting to see Taika at number 14 which may be the result of the famous Maori movie producer Taika Waititi. But it is a relief to see that there is not an influx of parents naming their baby after famous places and Iwi. There is a little more caution.
It would be interesting to see how percentages of Maori names by ethnicity and to see how many names are whakapapa based to the whanau.
Sourced from https://www.dia.govt.nz/press.nsf/d77da9b523f12931cc256ac5000d19b6/3a6c1923b85f3819cc257f48008050eb!OpenDocument
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