By KEITH PERRY
Some names never go out of fashion.
In a list of the most popular choices for New Zealand babies in 1999, traditional names popular 100 years ago still rank highly.
Herald birth notices show Georgia replacing Catherine or Kate at the top, the latter dropping to fifth place.
Hannah moved up
four places from 1998. Emily dropped off altogether and Grace enters the top 10 for the first time at ninth.
Other favoured girls' names were Caitlin (3), Emma (4), Olivia (5), Jessica (7), Sarah (8) and Sophie (10).
Joshua was the top name for boys, followed by Samuel and Matthew. Jack (4) was up three places on 1998, then came James, Benjamin, Daniel, Thomas and Liam. Alexander dropped out, leaving Nicholas as No 10.
A trend, particularly for boys, was the use of surnames as first names. Among them were Brady, Baxter, Cooper, Dawson, Flynn, Fletcher, Fergusson, Hunter, Griffin, Keegan, Logan, Lennox, McLean, Nixon, Newton, Pearce, Quinn, Riley, Stirling and Tennyson.
The trend was less apparent for girls, although the list included Kennedy, McKenzie, Mason and Taylor.
Eleanor Burkin, who has been compiling lists from the newspaper for 14 years, said the use of place names for girls was a fad.
Choices included Brooklyn, Chamonix, Chelsea, Devon, Dakota, Everest, Geneva, Houston, Indiana, India, Montana, Paris, Savoy, Sienna, Sydney, Tivoli and Vienna.
Boys were called Boston, Denbigh, Jericho and Kingston but were less likely to be named for places.
Some of the more unusual names chosen by parents included, for girls, Alabama-Lily, Birdie, Briny, Chevy, Noon, Piazza and Qinta.
Unusual names for boys included Buster, Dibo, Klib, Ricus, Tucson, Cruze, Reef, Star, Tague and Zian.
