Oliver top boy’s name in past eight years Attack details’ release welcomed
AUCKLAND: If you named your baby boy Oliver last year, you’re not alone.
Oliver has taken the crown as the most popular baby boy’s name in New Zealand for the past eight years, according to the Department of Internal Affairs.
More than 300 baby boys were given the popular name last year, followed by Jack in second place and Noah in third.
For girls, Isla topped the list, 243 babies having been given the name.
Isla first made the top 100 girl’s names in 2004 and 2020 was the first year it topped the list.
Some parents may have been influenced by Royals William and Kate, with Charlotte, the name of the couple’s daughter, the secondmost popular girl’s name
Nikau and Mia remained the most popular Maori boy’s and girl’s names last year, having topped the list for the past several years.
Taylor and Darcy were the most evenly split genderneutral names for 2020, with a 51%49% divide between boys and girls.
A total of 17,749 different first names were given to 58,676 babies born in 2020.
In 2019, there were 18,816 different first names given to 61,018 babies. — The New Zealand Herald
CHRISTCHURCH: The Islamic Women’s Council is relieved families of mosque attack victims will get more information from New Zealand’s chief coroner.
Judge Deborah Marshall wrote to victims’ families last month to offer access to as much information as they want.
She said that together with the police, she would make two packages of information available to families — one with a general level of detail and another with more specific information about how a particular person died.
The information would include photos of the victims as they entered the mosque for prayers on March 15, 2019, a diagram of where each victim was when they died and a forensic pathologist report.
Council spokeswoman Anjum
Rahman said it would be tough reading for families but would help them in their requests for a coronial inquest.
‘‘I think the families have an important decision to make on whether they want the coroner to make further inquiries and conduct an inquest and in order for them to do that they do need full information, so it’s vital all of the information is provided.
‘‘We welcome that the coroner is providing this information and that she’s giving families the opportunity to go back to her to ask questions and point out what’s missed,’’ Ms Rahman said.
It had been a hard process for families to digest the contents of the Royal Commission of Inquiry Report and now going through this process without any legal representation, she said.
‘‘Ideally they would have free legal representation that would help them go through all of this information.
‘‘I don’t think they have adequate advice.’’
It was important a coronial inquest took place in order to look into things the royal commission missed, she said.
‘‘It didn’t look at how this individual was radicalised and what interactions they had through social media, we know that YouTube was a factor but the royal commission didn’t look at it.
‘‘If we want to learn from this and prevent such things from happening again its really important that this work is done by the chief coroner,’’ she said.
Chief Coroner Judge Deborah Marshall said if there were any issues that could not be resolved through this information sharing process, an inquest could follow. — RNZ