Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and her partner Clarke Gayford have called their new daughter Neve Te Aroha Ardern Gayford.
Prepare for a surge in the number of babies called Neve after the Prime Minister chose a simpler version of the traditional Irish name for her wee daughter.
The couple announced the baby's name - Neve Te Aroha Ardern Gayford - yesterday morning.
The name meant bright and radiant, aswell as snow, which the couple thought suited the time of year - being Matariki and winter solstice.
Jarrod Rendle, editor of parent website KiwiFamilies which often publishes articles about choosing names, said Jacinda Ardern and Clarke Gayford's celebrity-like status was likely to give the name Neve a boost in popularity.
"Celebrity baby names are always on trend and so I think if New Zealanders see this as a celebrity name then chances are on the Department of Internal Affairs list next year we will see some variation of Neve jumping up through the ranks."
Rendle said it was on-trend for parents to put their own touch on the name by slightly altering the spelling, which is why Ardern and Gayford may have veered away from the more traditional Irish spelling Niamh.
Ardern said they chose the most simplest spelling because Clark with an 'e' had caused all sorts of problems.
Rendle believed Ardern and Gayford's more simple variation of the spelling would prove more popular than Niamh, although some more traditional spellings of names were also making a come back.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Clarke Gayford acknowledge congratulations for their baby girl Neve Te Aroha Ardern Gayford. Photo / Jason Oxenham
"I think it's really just a case of people wanting to try and spell their children's names slightly differently and sometimes going back to those traditional spellings now is more unique."
Should the PM's choice result in copycats, then it would be the first time Neve has appeared on the DIA list in the past 17 years.
In 2000, Niamh was ranked the 94th most popular girls' name in New Zealand with 47 babies given the name that year.
Since then, a similar name with a slightly different pronunciation, Neveah (said Ne-vay), was popular between 2008 and 2014 and featured on the DIA list each year.
Internationally Neve was at its most popular in 2012 with 113 babies per million given the name, according to Baby Center.com.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern cradles her daughter Neve Te Aroha Ardern Gayford before leaving Auckland City Hospital on Sunday. Photo / Jason Oxenham
The first baby also shares her name with Canadian actress Neve Campbell who starred as Sidney in Scary Movie and played Julia Salinger in the American drama series Party of Five in the mid-90s.
Meanwhile Matamata-Piako District Council has applauded Te Aroha as the baby's middle name choice.
"We're pretty excited that Jacinda Ardern and partner Clarke Gayford have named their baby after one of our gorgeous towns. If she has half as much character, beauty and personality as Te Aroha, she'll be off to a good start!," the council posted on Facebook.
The couple chose Te Aroha in tribute to the amount of love the baby had been shown.
"All of the names we were gifted along the way, I thought how do I reflect the generosity particularly from all of the iwi who gifted us names," Ardern said.
"Te Aroha seemed to be a way that we could show that love and generosity. It is also the place where all my family are from and I grew up under that mountain."
