It's all in the family for trio's names

Family has played a huge part in Rotorua couple Shannon Tweedie and Shane Harford's lives.

It also dominated their choice of names for their triplets, born 14 weeks ago.

Between them the triplets have seven names - none of which feature among the popular names bestowed on children born in the region last year.

Knowing they would have enough on their plates after their children arrived Miss Tweedie and Mr Harford had already reached a consensus on their names before the triplets entered the world.

The youngest of the trio, Kate Ashleigh Majella, is named after her grandmother Kate Tweedie and her great aunt Majella Wood - both special people in the couple's lives.

While Miss Tweedie had dibs on choosing her daughter's names, Mr Harford got to select the boys' names - with a little help from their mother.

The two boys are Blake George and Lachlan Shane.

The couple liked Blake because it is a strong name while his second name is that of his great grandfathers on both his mother and his father's sides.

"They were both good men and it was just out of respect to them. One passed on two years ago and the other passed away last year."

Lachlan was a name the pair agreed on after searching websites and books of baby names.

His second name is after his father.

For Mr Harford the difficult part about choosing the names was getting his partner's approval but Miss Tweedie is quick to add that he initially came up with a few interesting choices.

"[He was] trying to call them Lemon, Orange and Pear or Tui, Lion Red and Steinlager," she said.

Miss Tweedie did not want her children to have the same names as others, although quite a few Kiwi babies were named Blake last year according to the Department of Internal Affairs.

Nationally, Charlie, Tyler, Jayden, William, Noah, Blake and Riley joined Jack and Joshua as popular boys' names.

For the girls, Ava, Hayley Madison, Zoe, Chloe, Lily, Amelia, Mia and Jasmine rivalled Charlotte and Ella as favourites.

A survey of last year's 185 birth notices in the Daily Post revealed Harrison, Caleb, Logan and Riley were popular choices for boys' names with Abigail, Sarah and Emma fashionable for girls.

Some of the more creative names chosen last year include Xanda, Boston Pipi, Koston, Souljah, Owain, Mikulash and Kleavyn.



Old style names like Ella, Arabella, Ruby, Francis, Angus, Scarlett, Rita, Ava, Ivy and Andrew also made a comeback.

MOST POPULAR BABY NAMES

ROTORUA 2006

Boys

Harrison

Caleb

Logan

Girls

Abigail

Sarah

Emma

NEW ZEALAND 2006

Boys

Jack

Joshua

Daniel

Girls

Charlotte

Ella

Sophie

ODDBALL CELEBRITY NAMES

Suri (Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes)

Zolten (Penn Gillette)

Tennyson (Russell Crowe)



... AND SOME OLD CLASSICS

Satchel (Mia Farrow and Woody Allen)

Moon Unit (Frank Zappa)

Audio Science (Shannyn Sossamon)

Kal-El (Nicolas Cage)

Tu (Rob Morrow ... geddit?)