And SA's most popular baby names are ...

Want to give your child an original name? Then stay away from "Junior" and "Precious".

For a third year in a row, Junior took the top spot as the most popular name for boys in South Africa in 2016, followed by Blessing and Gift, according to data released by Stats SA on Thursday.

On the girls' side, Precious walked away with the honours for a second year in a row, displacing Iminathi, which was the most popular name in 2014.

The next two most popular names for girls registered in 2016 were Princess and Amahle.

Three of the most popular first names - Blessing, Melokuhle and Amogelang - were among both the male and female top 10.

"In general, the popular baby forenames for males and females reflect positive hopes for the child, express beliefs and are inspired by positive connotations of both love and acceptance,'' said StatsSA in its live births report.

Dlamini was the most common surname among babies born and registered in all three years - 2016, 2015 and 2014.

The next most common surnames were Nkosi and Ndlovu.

A total of 969,415 births was registered in 2016. In almost two-thirds of instances, 62%, the father was not named when the birth was registered.

StatsSA said: "This finding is consistent with that of previous years."

Most mothers were 20 to 29 years old.

More than 10% fewer babies were registered last year compared to 2015.

Most babies were registered in Gauteng (235,218), KwaZulu-Natal (198,628) and Limpopo (122,890).

March and September were the busiest months, with 9% and 8.6% of births. - TimesLIVE