How common is your baby's name? Here are SA's top 10 of 2018

Have you wondered what Mzansi parents are calling their newborns?

Stats SA on Thursday revealed the most common names for babies born in 2018.

Among over 1-million babies that were registered, boys were mostly named Enzokuhle, which translates loosely as “do well”. Second most popular was Lethabo, loosely translated to “the joy”, and third was Melokuhle, loosely translated to “stand for what is good”.

These three were also the top three names for 2017 births, in the same order.

With middle names, the majority of the babies were given English names. Junior was the most popular, followed by Blessing and Gift.

Among females, the three most popular first names for 2018 were Enzokuhle, Melokuhle and then Amahle.

Similar to the case with male children, the order remained the same as that of 2017. For middle names among girls, the most popular choices were Precious, Princess and Angel.

Meanwhile, Enzokuhle, Melokuhle, Omphile and Amogelang were in the top 10 list of names for both sexes.  

Stats SA said the top 10 first names for both sexes were of native languages. Most of the popular baby names for males and females reflected positive hopes for the child, and connotations of love and acceptance.

In terms of prevalent surnames, nationally, for both sexes was Dlamini, followed by Nkosi and then Ndlovu.

"It is interesting to note that nine of the surnames were from the Nguni clans, namely isiZulu, isiXhosa, isiNdebele and siSwati.

"Mokoena – which featured as the sixth most popular surname – was the only non-Nguni surname, in the top 10," said Stats SA.