There is a lot in a name, and in South Africa we tend to give children names that express a deeper meaning, a story or hold a significance within our family. A report conducted by Stats SA shared some interesting statistics on names and birth rates in the Western Cape.
In 2017, an overall a total of 95 997 babies were born in the Western Cape. The largest number of babies born were in the City of Cape Town and stood at 66 367, followed by The Cape Winelands at 13 826.
Of these births, 50 756 were male and 49 209 were female.
Last year was the second lowest number of total births per year since 2013, falling behind 2016 where only 94 440 babies were born.
As far as names are concerned the top 10 babies names in 2017 for the Western Cape are as follows:
Most popular names for boys last year in order were, Liam, Joshua, Noah, Enzokuhle, Kungawo, Luke, Caleb, Alunamda, Matthew and Mason
Most popular names for girls last year in order were, Mia, Alunamda, Leah, Iminathi, Khayone, Ava, Melokuhle, Emily and Enzokuhle
The Western Cape came in 4th place for overall registered births, accounting for 10.7% of the country’s babies born last year with Gauteng leading the birth rates at 22.4%.
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