Star Wars: The Force Awakens has had a major impact on the world, this is not a secret. When you make the third-highest grossing movie ever, you can’t help but impact the culture in some way. However, the Star Wars franchise looks to be having some long-lasting repercussions on the culture in an unexpected way. Parents are naming their newborns after the characters.
According to a blog post from Babycenter.com, several names associated with Star Wars have shot up the list of popular baby names. While several of them are the names of new characters from Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the names of the classic characters have also seen a resurgence thanks to being back at the forefront of pop culture.
The name Rey, for example, appears to have seen the biggest jump in popularity. Ranked at #14,172 in 2015, Daisy Ridley’s character’s name is now up to #2,784. Her name is not as popular as another new character, however. Kylo was up at #3,774 last year and is now up to #1,165 this year. The most interesting jump, however, has to belong to the name Lando. In 2015, the name was ranked at #11,231, and it has jumped all the way to #2,126 in 2016, which is impressive considering the character wasn’t even in the new movie!
Han and Leia have also seen jumps, as have names we can assume are related to Star Wars at least tangentially, like Rogue and Rebel. Lucas was already the fifth most popular name, and has seen no change.
Parents naming their children after their favorite fictional characters is nothing new. We’ve seen evidence that everything from Twilight to Game of Thrones has had an impact on baby names in the past. Wendy, one of the most popular women’s names for decades, was invented by J.M. Barrie for Peter Pan.
Naming your new baby girl after Rey makes perfect sense. Parents want their daughter to grow up to be strong, capable, and independent, and by the time she grows up, maybe she’ll be in a position to fly a spaceship. We can get behind all that. But Kylo? Who in their right mind wants to name their child after the guy who killed Han Solo? You’re setting your baby up for a trip to the dark side from birth. Who does this?
Do you have a child named after a fictional character? Let us know in the comments below. Who would you name your kids after, if you had the chance?
