NZ's 'Roil' family: Full list of banned baby names from 2018

4:17 pm on 14 January 2019

Roil, Royaale, Royal, Royale, Royale-Bubz, Royality, Royalty, Royelle and Rhoyal-Kahurangi.

Photo: Supplied

No, this is not a story about the royal family. All of these baby names - and many others - were declined by the Department of Internal Affairs last year.

Births, Deaths and Marriages, registrar-general Jeff Montgomery said although there were no banned names in New Zealand, there were boundaries in place to ensure names did not cause offence or resemble a title or rank.

"For example, you'll need to rethink swear words, names of more than 70 characters, numerals or anything unpronounceable, like a backslash or a punctuation mark."

"There's no problem if you want to give your child a spelled-out number or even silly name, but remember your child has to live with it."

So, in 2018, II, III, Heaven-Princezz-Star, Jusdyce and Zdiam-Bishop were all declined names.

If a name appears to fail the criteria, it can be reviewed by the registrar-general. The family then has an opportunity to present their reasons for the name, and these may be accepted.

Of the nearly 60,000 babies born in New Zealand each year, less than one percent have their name personally considered by the registrar-general.

In 2018, there were over 18,000 unique first names registered for children. The top names this year were Oliver and Charlotte, with Nikau and Mia taking out the top spots for Māori names.

Below is the full list of names declined by the registrar-general in 2018.