Every year, Stats SA publish the Recorded Live Births report for the previous year. Yesterday they released the 2016 list of most popular baby names in South Africa.

Junior and Precious again made the number 1 slots for boys and girls respectively, and the Dlaminis again recorded the most births last year. 

We also have a breakdown of the top boys name, girls name and surname per province, with names that didn't make it to the national list but came out tops in their province, like Kungawo in Eastern Cape and Mia in the Western Cape, for instance.

Also see: 

*South Africa's top baby names for 2015

*South Africa's top baby names for 2014

*The most unusual baby names in England revealed

*Weird and wonderful baby names lists!

*Find a name in our South African baby names list with more than 4,000 names.

So, drum roll... here are the names most babies were given in 2016!

Top boys names in South Africa 2016

1. Junior (1)

2. Blessing (2)

3. Gift (3)

4. Bandile (4)

5. Prince (5)

6. Melokuhle (7)

7. Siyabonga (6)

8. Lethabo (8)

9. Amogelang

10. Lubanzi

The first 8 boys names remain unchanged, with a small internal shuffle, but Junior beats the others by a big margin: 10 869 baby boys were named Junior, compared to 6 130 little boys being blessed with the name Blessing. Amogelang and Lubanzi are new in the top 10 this year.

The number in brackets indicates the position of the name on the 2015 top South African baby names list.

30 strong baby names for boys

Top girls names in South Africa 2016

1. Precious (1)

2. Princess (2)

3. Amahle (4)

4. Luthando 

5. Thandolwethu (6)

6. Blessing (8)

7. Angel (3)

8. Siphesihle

9. Melokuhle (7)

10. Amogelang

There's a bit more movement among the girls names, with Luthando, Siphesihle and Amogelang all entering the list. 

30 Strong baby names for girls

Top most registered surnames of babies in South Africa 2016

1. Dlamini (1)

2. Nkosi (2)

3. Ndlovu (3)

4. Khumalo (4)

5. Sithole (5)

6. Mokoena (6)

7. Mkhize (7)

8. Ngcobo (9)

9. Gumede

10. Mthembu (8)

This list nearly completely unchanged, except for Gumede entering at number 9, and last year's Mahlangu falling out.

The ABC of Xhosa names beautifully illustrated

The ABC of Setswana names beautifully illustrated

Source: Recorded Live Births: 2013-2015, Statistics South Africa, published 28 September 2017.

The top boy name, girl name and surname per province

Gauteng

Junior
Precious
Mokoena

Western Cape

Junior
Mia
Jacobs

Eastern Cape

Kungawo
Iminathi
Williams

Northern Cape

Junior
Grace
Van Wyk

KwaZulu-Natal

Bandile
Luthando
Dlamini

Free State

Junior
Precious
Mokoena

North West

Junior
Amogelang
Molefe

Mpumalanga

Blessing
Princess
Nkosi

Limpopo

Junior
Precious
Baloyi

Find a South African baby name:

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SOUTH AFRICAN BABY NAME FINDER

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