The ACT's top baby names for this year have shown Canberrans are fans of consistency, as the winners are almost the same as 2021's results.
For the third year in a row, Charlotte has remained at the top of the podium for the most popular baby girl name, while Oliver has taken first place for the second year, knocking last year's tied winner Henry down to second place for baby boys.
Loren Hyde said her family always preferred traditional names and is a mother to seven-month old Oliver and three-year-old William or Billy for short.
"We've just always been drawn to the traditional names ... I knew that we weren't going to be a family that had different names, that's not for us, we quite like the traditional ones," she said.
"I always liked Olive for a girl but then we knew we were having a boy so that wasn't going to be an option and my great-grandmother was an Olive so we've always liked that name."
While Ms Hyde was eager on Oliver early into her pregnancy, there were a few hurdles before the family became set on the name.
"One of our best friends have an Oliver so we never really thought that we would go with Oliver and we had other names shortlisted but then closer to the due date we kind of circled back," she said.
"We checked in with them and of course they were totally fine with it, saying they don't own it ... they found it quite complimentary that we were using it."
The choice was finally locked in when Ms Hyde went into labour, as Oliver's older brother Billy gave his preference for the name.
"My husband said to him 'you know, I think your brother's going to be born today, what name do you think he should be?' and he chose Oliver," she said.
"So he's the ultimate chooser of the name and the other option was Henry so you can see we're very traditional with names."
Just over the border in Queanbeyan, Jess Shoard had a baby Oliver earlier this year and said they never considered the name at first because the family preferred less popular names.
"We've got a Bentley and Bentley's definitely not a popular name at all, Zavier was one of our top picks but with the letter Z instead of an X and Huxley was another one that we had picked," she said.
"Then when we had Ollie, we were looking at him and I sent the picture to family and my dad wrote back and he's like 'he looks like an Oliver'."
In 2022 as of December 12, 6200 babies were registered in the ACT, a decrease from the 6330 registered in 2021.
The other top ranking names in the ACT this year for boys was Henry, William, Leo and Theodore while for girls it was Isla, Evelyn, Amelia and Zoe.
Registration of births is compulsory in Canberra and must be done within the first six months of a child being born. This can be done on the Access Canberra website by using the online birth registration form.
The issuing of a birth certificate typically occurs within 15 business days.
Top female names for 2022
- Charlotte
- Isla
- Evelyn
- Amelia
- Zoe
- Ella, Hazel (equal)
- N/A
- Ava, Freya, Grace, Olivia (equal)
Top male names for 2022
- Oliver
- Henry
- William
- Leo
- Theodore
- Noah
- Arthur
- George, Thomas (equal)
- N/A
- Levi, Lucas (equal)
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