That Australia will ever have a complete name data list (meaning rankings, how many babies born with that name etc)? Something akin to the baby name explorer (for NSW).
I would love to think in the future we could indeed have something like this (going back to the 1800s or so) like the US. But then again some states and territories, NT and SA for example have very little name data open to the public–so would that be an issue?
Its a somewhat tedious process finding out what is what (obscure names being used, trends etc) but we’re lucky to have blog sites like Waltzing More Than [name]Matilda[/name] and [name]Baby[/name] Name Ponderings ([name]Blue[/name] [name]Juniper[/name] on Nameberry) to help compile data for us.
So do you think it could happen? It would be a lot of work, and perhaps the Government won’t invest its time and money into making that happen. Maybe we will have some determined non-government individual or group who can make this happen. I for sure wouldn’t envy that process.
I assume every new baby is registered in some way, issued a birth certificate or some form of identification. It seems like it wouldn’t be that difficult to put out a name list if those records were computerized. Also, do you have something like the census in place?
I would just love it for WA personally. It would be great for me as a name blogger to give more accurate name ratings in Aus. We only just got a top 100 last year which honestly sucks.
@kungfualex Yes we have a census every I think four years and we all get birth certificates
I agree with kungfualex. Surely it can’t be that hard to combine data? And ditto for [name]Canada[/name] and the UK. I’ve searched in vain for accurate combined lists for these places. It’s great having a breakdown for different areas/states/territories/countries, but I’d love an overall view too.
Have you posed the question to the relevant Government department/s?
It might be worth a shot.
I know that [name]England[/name] & [name]Wales[/name] didn’t used to do their lists of every name used (whereas [name]Scotland[/name] did), and one of my British relatives who works for the official statistics body in [name]England[/name] & [name]Wales[/name] said they got so many e-mails/letters about it, that they relented and ended up producing the comprehensive list.
