Cape Town – Most male babies that were born in 2014 were named “Junior”, while parents named their newly born daughters “Iminathi”.
This now means that the names Sibusiso for boys and Elizabeth for girls, which were the most popular as per 2011 Census results, have fallen out of favour.
This is according to Statistics South Africa’s latest Recorded Live Births 2014 Report released by Statistician General Pali Lehohla, on Tuesday.
“Obviously when a child is born and they are not named yet, they may call you ‘Junior’ or ‘Baby’,” he said.
Other names for boys that made the top ten for male babies that were born in 2014 – in their order of popularity, included Bandile, Kungawo, Siyabonga, Lethabo, Khayone, Mpho, Bokamoso, Kamogelo and Thato.
For girls, Minenhle was the second most popular name, followed by Rethabile, Bokamoso, Karabo, Amogelang, Tshegofatso, Lesedi, Amahle and Thandolwethu.
The most popular surname for both sexes went to the Dlaminis, followed by Ntulis, Ngubanes, Ndlovus, Nkosis, Khumalos, Ngobenis, Mthethwas, Zwanes and Malulekes.
Home Affairs 30-day birth registration yielding results
According to Stats SA, in 2014, more than half of the births were registered within 30 days in accordance with the Births and Deaths Registration Amendment Act.
Stats SA said the Department of Home Affairs has made concerted efforts to ensure that the registration of births is made as easy as possible.
“The potential to improve birth registration in South Africa exists as health facilities with maternity units now provide registration services and the social grant system’s birth registration prerequisite compliments the birth registration network.
“In addition, legislation facilitates timely registrations as it stipulates that registration in South Africa is universal, free for first-time applicants, compulsory and should be done within 30 days from the date of birth,” Stats SA said.
The Statistician General said the introduction of social security also played a part in the spike of registrations.
“The introduction of the child support grant led to a spike in the number of registrations. So there are policy instruments that influence registrations of births.”
The Statistician General also said the spike in the number of births registered within 30 days of being born in March and September between in 2014 could be attributed to the festive holidays and cold winters.
“… September is a month when a good number of children are born and when you count backwards you will realise that December played a role here and for the children who are born in March, winter played a role.”
Top 5 causes of deaths
The Statistician General said in 2013, the ratio of child deaths stood at 29.9, with 25 729 infants dying within a year of being born out of a total of 860 393 births.
For the 14 604 still births, 13.3% died from complications of pregnancy, labour and delivery – which was the leading cause of death – followed by complications of placenta and membranes (9%), fetal growth defects and low birth weight (4.7%), intrauterine lack of oxygen (3.6%) and brain malformations (1.2%).
He said of the 7 470 newborns that died within seven days of being born, 18% died from short pregnancy and low birth weight, 14% from respiratory distress, 10% from lack of oxygen induced physical damage, 9% from conditions related to pregnancy and 7% from bacteria.
He said from the 2 968 that died aged between 8 and 28 days, 35% died due to low birth weight, 30% from respiratory distress, 22% from conditions related to pregnancy, 12% from bacteria and 10% from lack of oxygen induced physical damage. – SAnews.gov.za
