Here are my 5 favorite video game-inspired baby names:
- Mario, the name of the heroic Italian plumber who is currently the mascot of Nintendo. He was named for Mario Segale, a former landlord of the Nintendo company.
Popularity: Mario has ranked among the 1,000 most popular baby names in the U.S. since the early 1900s.
- Zelda, the name of the princess in the Legend of Zelda series. Her name was inspired by Zelda Fitzgerald, wife of writer F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Popularity: Zelda was in the top 1,000 from the 1880s through 1967.
- Carmen, from the educational Carmen Sandiego computer games. Her name was chosen because game creators thought it was exotic-sounding, but still easy to pronounce.
Popularity: Carmen has been in the top 1,000 nearly every year since baby name data was first collected (in 1880).
- Alex, the name of the main character in the Alex Kidd game series. He was the mascot of Sega until Sonic the Hedgehog replaced him.
Popularity: Alex has ranked in the top 1,000 every year since 1880.
- Lara, the name of archaeologist Lara Croft, heroine of Tomb Raider. Her name was originally Laura, but it was changed because creators thought ‘Lara’ would appeal more to an American audience.
Popularity: Lara has been in the top 1,000 since 1966.
Honorable mention goes to Ryu, the Street Fighter character whose name means ‘dragon’ in Japanese.
50 Comments
Well, I never knew Alex was inspired by the game.
Mjuboy – Thanks for the comment!
Actually, Alex doesn’t come from the game — it comes from Alexander, a Greek name that’s been around for quite a while.
I wasn’t able to find out how the Alex Kidd character was named. He’s a pretty old character, so I don’t know if information like that is even out there…
I would have guessed the game-origins of all of them except for Alex. A very interesting list. If you’d like to have a look at my entry in Darren’s contest, it’s at:
http://www.rodtempleton.net/2007/05/07/my-top-5-required-feeds/
I’ve heard other names that I thought HAD to have been inspired by video games, but I can’t remember them right now. I’ll have to get back to you on that.
Congratulations! =D
Wow!! Lucky you! You won. Congrats! Great posts too. You
Congratulations on the win on the contest!
congratulations for winning the huge project Nancy.. well done…
congratulations on your big win!! this is the first i’m hearing of your blog and now i’ve subscribed to the feed. i’m OBSESSED with baby names. congrats again and i’ll be reading!
Congratulations on winning. Fun topic!
Congratulations Nancy! I’m so very happy that you got to win the group writing project..
I like Carmen the best by the way :)
Whoa, congrats on winning the contest! That’s awesome! Just thought I’d congratulate you when I saw the news. So what do you plan to do with the $1001? ;)
Cute post, by the way. Made me nostalgic. :)
Congratulations!! You won the prize!! Great post!!
Congrats on your $1001! Interesting article, glad to have read it.
Congrats on winning the $1001 – not a bad payday for a top 5 list ;) Be sure to let us know how you plan to use it.
Congratulations on winning Darren’s Problogger contest you lucky SOB!
But I come bearing bad news. I was just diagnosed today with Jealousbloggeritis. I have only days to live unless I can raise $1001 in the next day or two. If you could help me out, I would be very appreciative. *cough cough*
Kidding aside, my parents did almost name me Mario. But Mario, Zelda, & Carmen were really that popular? Weird.
congratulations :)
Congratulations, Nancy! Very creative post. Love it. Have fun with the prize ;-)
*Embarrassed* Sorry about the “SOB”. I didn’t realize I was addressing a lady. My mother would slap me upside the head! My humblest apologies.
And congrats again!
Fun post – congrats on winning, and I enjoyed reading! I got all crass on my blog and wrote five reasons why people should give me money :)
Thanks so much, everyone!
PS – No worries, How to Get Poor Quick — I’ve been called worse! :)
Congratulations, Nancy!! Enjoy your winnings! :-)
Angela Betts
Hey Nancy,
Congrats on winning the $1001!!!
I once met a kid named Ganon.
Kidding, kidding.
Great post and congrats on what it’s won ya, Nancy!
Bravo — well deserved! Enjoy the booty! Great post…. and I was glad to find your site.
Congratulations! Great post as well. Nice site.
Congrats on the win!
Hey, do you have a little money I could borrow? You know, just to hold me over until my check clears? LOL
Great work,
BD
Congratulation from Why Must Visit Malaysia? truly creative!
Congratulations on your win! Good article!
congratulations on winning!
Hi Nancy, congratulations on winning Darren´s Contest.
All the best to you
Cheers Marco
Hey Congrats on the win!
Love your top 5, though I haven’t met anyone named Zelda yet!
Congratulations on the win for a very creative post.
this entry won? hmmm weird
Congratulations on the luck! I must have been wrong in my list about the evil doer that would take the cash prize. Enjoy the money and use it on something fun and not something boring like shoes…or bills. Congrats Nancy on the win and a fun post!
Dennis the Menace
Hey Nancy!!
Congrats!
Guess what, take a look at my top 5 picks speedlinking post from that days entries…guess who was on there? ;)
http://ryanshamus.com/speed-linking/probloggers-group-writing-contest/
Anyway, you made me proud, I picked a winner! I feel lucky!
Grats again, and keep up the good work, lady!
Ryan Shamus
Congratulations for being the winner of this project, Nancy. Great post and blog too.
Congrats for the winner.
You can share the prize,with another writing contest, you can get benefits like Darren did.
BTW here’s some tips for handle children behavior :
18 months: This child walks a one-way street, and his direction is usually the opposite of yours. He’s extremely protective of his own territory, and will probably say no to your every request. Your words have no influence; only your actions do.
2 years: You’ll have an easier, smoother time at this age. Language is stronger so he’ll be able to tell you what he wants. He tends to be friendly and affectionate, and coordination has improved.
3 years: Here comes a brief spurt of “goodnessâ€: 3’s tend to be friendly and compliant, cooperative and conforming. This child wants to please.
Congratulations!
I haven’t met too many people named Zelda recently. Fun list.
congratulations, nancy. love this blog. will refer it to my mommy-to-be friends :)
We’re fine until people start naming their kids “Pikachu. Then, we are done for as a soceity.
I actually know a person who named their child “Miles” with the middle name “Prower” after the multi-tailed fox from Sonic the Hedgehog. I think that is rather cool.
Congratulations on winning the prize.
I don’t think I would name a child any of those names, but for what it’s worth my kids like playing some of them…
hi nancy. congrats on winning the cash. I wish I was that lucky
Oddly, your name matches that of the Sin City comic-movie character :D
congrat nancy on your new traffic as well as the $1001 …
cheers …
Thanks for stopping by, everyone!!
[Harsh - Yup, I know about that character! Cool, eh? :)]
Congratulations! Nice list too! Sweet and simple. Very interesting as well with plenty of geek appeal. Good work.
I just thought I’d drop a line to say that my son is named “Ganon”. ^_^ We really wanted a name from a game, but of course we didn’t want something that was going to get him beaten up on the playground, such as might have occured with “Sephiroth” or “Luigi” or “Sonic.” We want the poor kid to function in society. What we’ve noticed with the name “Ganon” is that gamers look at us strangely, hardly wanting to ask the question, while people who aren’t gamers simply say things like “What a pretty name! I’ve never heard that before!” or “Oh, that sounds like an old name; is it a family one?” or even “It’s good to hear old, traditional names” from one older lady.
Congrats on your winning! Great post.
A well-deserved win, congrats! Luigi is a much better name than Mario for someone else to name their kid simply for the opportunity to intentionally mis-pronounce it. LOL. I unfortunately did not grow up with any Luigi’s. However, I did know a Mario and I would always start the conversation with Mario, bro, …