Top twenty New Zealand Surnames

MEDIA RELEASE
14/08/2014
Top twenty New Zealand Surnames

The latest year’s crop of Kiwi babies have more names of non-European origin than ever before.

Internal Affairs records show that while Smith, Wilson and Williams are the most popular family names, Singh and Wang at seventh and eighth have overtaken names like Anderson and Thompson. Other popular names include the homophonic Li and Lee, Patel and Zhang.

As diversity increases, the Registrar-General of Births, Deaths, Marriages and Citizenship, Jeff Montgomery is keen to see all New Zealand parents, here and abroad, protect their babies’ rights by registering them.

“More than 20,000 New Zealand citizens have babies overseas each year, with most of these being born in Australia. It is important to also know that kiwi babies born overseas should be registered as citizens by descent, ensuring their immediate access to full rights of citizenship including the ability to get a passport.”

There’s no separate record of the names of those born overseas, but Jeff Montgomery says he doesn’t think there will be much difference in the family name trends.

The changes over the years can be seen in figures for previous years released for the first time by the department today.

“The figures are also affected by how common surnames are among each ethnic group – the fewer surnames within a group, the higher the chances of making the top 20”.

Jeff Montgomery says registering as a New Zealand citizen by descent is very easy – the application form can be downloaded from www.citizenship.govt.nz. Parents can also call free 0800 22 51 51 for help with any questions they might have.

The top surnames for New Zealand, Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch are:

Ends

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