Baby Names & Parental Income: The Australian Data

Methodology & Sources

Name Data

Top names by gender from NSW Registry of Births, Deaths & Marriages, 2024. NSW accounts for approximately 32% of Australian births and is broadly representative of national trends.

Income Scores (1–100)

Evidence-based ordinal scores derived from:

• Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Survey of Income and Housing — income distribution by demographic group.
• Grattan Institute — Australian social mobility and educational outcomes research.
• Analysis of name prevalence by school sector (independent vs. government) using MySchool data.

Limitations

• NSW data only; naming patterns in Queensland, Victoria, and Western Australia may differ.
• Australia’s high and growing immigration rate means demographic correlations shift rapidly.

Data enquiries: press@media.primespotpr.com

Name Database

Name origin, meaning, and cross-country frequency data sourced from babynames.help — the largest open baby-name database covering 190,000+ names across 40 countries (April 2026).

Story Angles for Journalists

This dataset is free to use with attribution to babynames.help. Press enquiries: press@media.primespotpr.com

The Balmain Baby vs. The Western Suburbs Baby

Sydney's inner east and the outer west have always told different stories. This data suggests those stories start with the birth certificate. The same name gap visible in New York and London appears in Australia — perhaps more starkly.

The Bogan Name: Myth or Data?

Australians have an informal vernacular for "working-class names". This dataset asks whether those cultural stereotypes hold up to quantitative scrutiny — and what it means when they do.

New Australian Names

Australia's multicultural wave of the last two decades has introduced names from South and East Asia, the Middle East, and Africa into the top 50. How do those names sit in the income distribution — and what does that say about migrant economic outcomes?

Old Australia vs. New Australia

Anglo-Celtic names (Oliver, Charlotte, William) still dominate the High tier. Is that a cultural legacy, a socioeconomic pattern, or both? The data prompts that question; the story is in the interviews.

From the Mines to the Suburbs

Mining-boom wealth in WA and QLD created a generation of well-paid tradies with very different naming tastes from the inner-city professional class. Does that show up in the income-name correlation for those states?