Huge increase in parents naming their children after TV and film characters and celebrities

Parents are playing tribute to their favourite TV and film characters by naming their babies after them.

Choosing a moniker for an actual human is a pretty tricky business, and it seems parents are turning to popular culture for namespo.

New research, by childcare.co.uk has revealed there has been a whopping 112% leap in the number of babies named after TV/film characters and celebrities within the last 10 years.

The name which has seen the biggest spike in popularity is Ariana, the first name of pop queen Ariana Grande, followed by Jesse, one of the leading characters in cult hit TV show ‘Breaking Bad’.

The baby name number crunchers found that in 2009 19 children were named Ariana, in 2019 76 bubbas have been given the moniker, a jump of 300%.

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To unveil the baby naming trends the platform polled 10,000 members on their child’s names, and flagged the names that appear in popular culture.

It then compared it with the same sized pool of data from 10 years ago, to uncover the baby naming crazes.

The Kardashians are famous for their out-the-box baby names and it seems Kim and Kanye’s eldest North is providing some inspo, with North seeing a hike in popularity.

In 2009 no parents opted to name their little one North, but in 2019 four mini Norths were registered.

Meanwhile the Beckhams’ unusual name picks are giving mums and dads-to-be some namespo as Harper makes the top ten trending names, witness a rise of 89% in popularity.

We already know that parents-to-be love naming their little ones after the characters from ‘Game of Thrones’ but with ‘Frozen 2’ hitting cinemas in November, we’re expecting to see another wave of little Elsa’s on the pre-school register with the name seeing a 197% increase in popularity.

Last year saw popular TV shows Peaky Blinders and Stranger Things have an influence on baby names, and it seems that the former is still providing inspiration for parents with Tommy witnessing a 153% spike, possibly due to charismatic lead character Tommy Shelby.

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Commenting on the findings Richard Conway, Childcare.co.uk founder, said: “TV and celebrities have a huge influence on our culture, so it’s not surprising to see that these names are becoming more and more popular.

“It’s not a new trend either, people have historically named their children after their icons, it’s just a hundred years ago it was after the Queen or King, not a murderous blood spatter analyst!

“It’s interesting to monitor name trends, and see what star or programme is having the biggest influence on people’s lives. It certainly helps determine who is well liked by the public. I doubt many children will be called Thanos over the next few years!”

The 10 names which have seen the biggest increase over the last 10 years:

1. Ariana – 300% increase

2. Jesse – 281% increase

3. Dexter – 273% increase

4. Arya – 259% increase

5. Dustin – 228% increase

6. Elsa – 197% increase

7. Tommy – 153% increase

8. Blu – 110% increase

9. Harper – 89% increase

10. Loki – 61% increase

View the full list of twenty here.

It isn’t just popular culture that is having an influence in the baby naming process, recently revealed stats highlighting 2019’s most popular monikers so far found that 80s names were making a comeback.

Meanwhile Awesome, Lucifer, Nun and Echo were among the surprising monikers given to babies born in Scotland last year.