In
2014, more and more parents turned to TV to find inspiration for their
newborns’ names. Nearly 20 percent of moms surveyed by BabyCenter for their annual Baby Names Survey – part of the site’s Top 100 Baby Names for 2014 report released
Tuesday – say that characters on their favorite shows sparked their
selection. Another 16 percent reveal that an actor or actress name
influenced their choice.
Girls Boys
Sophia Jackson
Emma Aiden
Olivia Liam
Ava Lucas
Isabella Noah
Mia Mason
Zoe Ethan
Lily Caden
Emily Jacob
Madelyn Logan
Sophia Jackson
Emma Aiden
Olivia Liam
Ava Lucas
Isabella Noah
Mia Mason
Zoe Ethan
Lily Caden
Emily Jacob
Madelyn Logan
“This
is the year of the binge-watching baby name,” Linda Murray, BabyCenter
Global Editor in Chief, tells Yahoo Parenting. “When you spend 16 hours
in one weekend watching your favorite series, you can’t help but fall in
love with the characters’ names. The correlation between trending baby
names and trending binge-watch shows is undeniable.”
Exhibit A: Characters on Netflix. Cast names in House of Cards rose
in the rankings, including Garrett, 16 percent; Claire, 14 percent;
Zoe, 13 percent, and even Remy, 11 percent and Francis, 5 percent. Ditto
for Orange is the New Black. Galina shot up a whopping 67 percent this year, while Boo went up 57 percent and Piper, 28 percent. Character names from Grey’s Anatomy (Arizona, with a 35 percent rise) and Scandal (Fitzgerald, with a 56 percent rise) were movers as well. And remarkably, 16 of the 22 names on ABC’s Nashville jetted
up the list, with Luke stepping it up most with a 44 percent increase
in popularity, and series star Hayden Panettiere’s own name rocking a 23
percent uptick.
Jackson is still hanging tough as
the most popular boy name for a second year, and Sophia is sitting
pretty as the No. 1 girl name for the fifth year in a row, but a few new names debuted on the Top 10 list: Caden, Logan and Madelyn, based on the names of more than 406,000 babies born in 2014 to moms registered on BabyCenter.com
Related: Could Your Baby’s Name Predict Future Behavior?
“Parents told us they want an uncommon but not unique name,” explains Murray. “They don’t want their son to be 1 of 15 Liams in a class yet they want something unusual.” That’s why she believes people are choosing the names of small screen characters. “They feel fresh and you start to like them because you hear them over and over, whether they’re beloved or a villain.”
“Parents told us they want an uncommon but not unique name,” explains Murray. “They don’t want their son to be 1 of 15 Liams in a class yet they want something unusual.” That’s why she believes people are choosing the names of small screen characters. “They feel fresh and you start to like them because you hear them over and over, whether they’re beloved or a villain.”
Southern-style names on the whole
are up as well. Tennessee is 61 percent more selected for boys this
year and Macon is up 29 percent. “I expected place names would be
meaningful to parents,” says Murray of the destination name trend. (One
in four of those undecided on a name reported that they might choose the
name of a place they associate with special memories) “But in fact,
most people say they’ve never been to the place they’re naming their
child after. They have some positive association with it but no real
personal meaning.”
This isn’t to say that moms and
dads are taking name selection lightly. “We found that 60 percent of
parents believe a child’s name contributes to their success in life,”
says Murray. Respondents revealed they were looking for names that
conveyed specific qualities, she adds. For boys, “strength” and
“kindness” were top priorities, whereas “kindness” and “intelligence,”
topped the list for girls. “Parents take the job seriously,” she says,
“because they want to set their kid up for a great life.”
