The most popular names in the Province
THE MOST popular name given to babies born in the Northern Cape in 2017 was Lethabo for boys and Reatlegile for girls.
This is according to the Recorded Live Births, 2017 report released by Statistics South Africa (Stats SA).
The top name in the country is Enzokuhle, which shares the top spot for both males and females, and loosely translates to, “to do good”.
According to Stats SA, in South Africa, and most African countries, traditional African names often have unique stories behind them.
“From the day or time a baby is born to the circumstances surrounding the birth, several factors influence the names parents choose for their children. Whichever ethnic group you look at, the name a baby is given at birth may reveal a wealth of information about the bearer.”
The top boy’s name in the Northern Cape, Lethabo, means happiness while Reatlegile means to be successful.
The 10 most most popular names in the Province in 2017 were (for boys) Lethabo, Amogelang, Jayden, Katlego, Junior, Ofentse, Liam, Lebogang, Kutlwano and Kamagelo, and for girls it was Reatlegile, Remofilwe, Resego, Tshegofatso, Warona, Omogolo, Omolemo, Amogelang, Lesedi and Omaatla.
The most popular first name across the country for males was Enzokuhle, followed by Lethabo, then Melokuhle.
Popular middle names were Junior, which was also the most popular middle name given in the Northern Cape, followed by Blessing and Gift.
Amongst females, the top three first names were Enzokuhle, Melokuhle, then Amahle while for middle names it was Precious, Princess and Angel. Precious was the most popular girls middle name in the Northern Cape.
Stats SA pointed out that the most popular middle names in 2017 were generally expressions of pride, joy and thankfulness and appear to be religiously influenced. For example, Precious means “affectedly concerned with elegant or refined behaviour”. “Some names, such as Blessing, Faith or Hope, may reflect the mood or circumstances of the family at the time of birth.”
In terms of baby surnames, Van Wyk was the most common baby surname in the Northern Cape. A total of 377 Van Wyk babies were born in the year under review, followed by Louw (274), Cloete (201), Jacobs (173), Olyn (127), Visagie (116), Beukes (104), Modise (103), Swartz (94) and Booysen (90).
Jacobs was the most common baby surname in both the Eastern Cape and Western Cape, with Nkosi taking the top spot in Gauteng and Mpumalanga. For the other provinces, Baloyi was the most common in Limpopo, Mokoena in the Free State, Dlamini in KwaZulu-Natal and Molefe in the North West province.
Dlamini was the most common surname for both sexes, followed by Nkosi and Ndlovu.
All the top 10 baby surnames were generally of the Nguni clan, with the exception of Mokoena, which ranked sixth.
A total of 24 395 births were registered in the Northern Cape in 2016, which was also the lowest number in the country. Namaqua had one of the country’s lowest number of births at 1 592 for the year.