The moments of 2015 that stuck with us.

As we start 2016, many of us will find ourselves reflecting on the year that has just passed. All over again we celebrate birth, mourn death, rejoice in love, sneer at the stupid, laugh at the funny and swoon at the heart-warming.

The good, the bad and the downright ugly. The silly, the strange and the sincere. These are the moments of 2015 that have stuck with us.

1. Princess Charlotte was born.

Mothers everywhere marvelled at Kate Middleton‘s effortless appearance on the steps of the Lindo Wing merely hours after giving birth to Princess Charlotte.

Monarchists rejoiced, as secret royal-loving republicans like me quietly but delightfully peered at every photo released of the new royal baby. This new, very modern royal family has embraced social media and regularly issues tantalising glimpses of this adorable child. Often they’re photos taken by the Duchess of Cambridge herself. Like this one:

2. Rosie Batty was named Australian of the Year.

Try as we might to avoid hyperbole, it’s a hard task when it comes to Rosie Batty. This ordinary woman, in the face of the most awful events – the killing of her child at the hands of his own father — has become extraordinary.

Extraordinary for the way she has taken the death of her son Luke and made it a force for good, for the way she has changed our national conversation, for the way she has inspired our entire community to stand up and fight family violence.

What Rosie has done, is continuing to do, will stay with us long after 2015 has passed.

3. Kim and Kanye named their baby Saint.

While the bookies were odds on the name East (which I will loudly proclaim is a direction, not a name) for Kimye’s second child, Yeezy and Kim K gifted him the name Saint instead.

In the Roman Catholic tradition, Saints are usually given a particular purpose. There is a saint for lost causes, for instance, which is what trying to get a Kardashian-free day on Instagram is.

4. Netflix arrived in Australia.

HOO-RAY. That bastion of streamed television, Netflix, newly arrived in Australia in 2015. That is, if you didn’t have certain somewhat dubious arrangements that allowed you to access Netflix US from Australia.

As a nation we binged watching House of Cards. We fell in love with actress Connie Britton, star of Friday Night Lights and Nashville. We were engrossed in Orange is the New Black and we celebrated the female anti-hero main character in Jessica Jones.

5. We discovered the name Gary is quickly going extinct.

Experts believe that Garys will be extinct by 2050. Yes, we have (finally, some might argue) stopped naming our babies Gary.

Gary hit peak popularity in 1952 but only 400 babies were named Gary in 2013, and a British study of baby names made the prediction that the last Gary will die before the year 2050.

While some argued we should bring Gary back, along with names like Trevor and Rodney, hopefully, common sense will prevail, and we’ll continue to name our children Rocket Zot (Lara Bingle) Apple (Gwyneth Paltrow) and Daisy Boo (Jamie Oliver).

6. Elle magazine published a photo of Nicole Trunfio breastfeeding on their front cover.

History-making and groundbreaking was how the photo of model Nicole Trunfio breastfeeding on the cover of Elle was described. And that it certainly was.

But more than that, it was a poignant image of motherhood, created and dispersed by mass media. And for what it’s worth, the more mothers are doing normal mothering things like breastfeeding in mass media, the better for mothers, the better for children and the better for our whole community.

Happy New Year, friends. Here’s to the sticky moments of 2016 and beyond.

What stuck out to you in 2015?

Here are some more memorable moments from the year that was: