Brimbank’s baby boom continued in 2016, with Sunshine Hospital reporting a major jump in births last year.
About 15 babies were born every day at the hospital, with 5475 newborns blinking into the world across the year, an increase of 350 births on 2015. The hospital’s findings come just as Births, Deaths and Marriages released the most popular boys and girls names among Victorian parents during 2016.
Charlotte, Olivia, Mia, Amelia and Ava were the top five names for baby girls, while Oliver, Jack, William, Noah and James were the most popular boys’ names. For Oliver, it is the third year running this has been the most popular boy’s name, while Charlotte has jumped from the silver medal position in 2014 and 2015 (possibly inspired by the 2015 birth of Princess Charlotte to Prince William and Cate, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge).
A Sunshine hospital spokeswoman said while such records are not kept, it is likely Sunshine has a more diverse range of newborn names.
“The diversity of mothers having babies at Sunshine Hospital would be far greater than in some Melbourne or Victorian hospitals, therefore the most popular names might vary considerably,” she said. “The (most popular) names listed might be less common among families from certain backgrounds.”
Sunshine Hospital wasted no time in getting the 2017 baby count rolling, welcoming their first newborn at 12.16am on New Year’s Day.
