Pop culture baby name game, 2019

pop culture baby name game, 2019

Time for the annual Pop Culture Baby Name Game!

But first: Happy birthday, Elvis Presley! (He would have been 85 today.)

So now, think back to 2019. Think of all the pop culture that caught your attention. Think of movies, music, TV shows, social media, sports, video games, news, politics, products, and so forth.

Which of these things had an influence on U.S. baby names last year, do you think? Which baby names will see higher usage (or appear for the very first time) in the 2019 data thanks to 2019 pop culture?

Here are some names to start with:

  • Adeya – from celebrity baby Adeya (born in March to Kehlani)
  • Alita – from the movie Alita: Battle Angel
  • Archie – from royal baby Archie (born in May to Harry & Meghan)
  • Billie – from singer Billie Eilish
  • Brixton – from the movie Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw
  • Deckard – from the movie Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw
  • Dorian – from hurricane Dorian
  • Eilish – also from singer Billie Eilish
  • Gloria – from the St. Louis Blues anthem “Gloria
  • Greedy – from NFL player Andraez Montrell “Greedy” Williams
  • Greta – from environmental activist Greta Thunberg
  • Lizzo – from rapper/singer Lizzo (originally a Melissa)
  • Luce – from the movie Luce
  • Maleficent – from the movie Maleficent: Mistress of Evil
  • Nipsey – from the late rapper Nipsey Hussle
  • Post – from rapper Post Malone
  • Psalm – from celebrity baby Psalm (born in May to Kim & Kanye)
  • Saybie – from San Diego micro-preemie “Saybie”
  • Shaed – from the band Shaed (“Trampoline”)
  • Sulwe – from the book Sulwe by Lupita Nyong’o
  • Wick – from the movie John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum

A few names from the 2018 game (Kamala? Kelleth? Sanni? Marsai?) might still be applicable as well.

What other names should we add to the list? Let me know by commenting below. Please don’t forget to mention the pop culture influence!

I’ll be posting the game results in May of 2020, a few days after the SSA releases the 2019 baby name data. If you don’t want to miss the results post, just subscribe to NBN!

29 thoughts on “Pop culture baby name game, 2019

  1. Maybe the falling trend of Megan can be reverted for a moment, for Megan Rapinoe, women world footballer of 2019. For the daring, there is also her surname Rapinoe, but I wouldn’t bet money on that one.

  2. Second nomination:

    Elsa

    for Frozen 2. The name of her kingdom, Arendelle, also sounds like a name, doesn’t it? It was never on the stats yet.

  3. More, still inspired by Frozen 2:

    Idina (the name of the actress playing Elsa) and Iduna (a character in the film)

    Idina was once in the SSA stats in 2017, Iduna would be a debut.

  4. The finale of Games of Thrones will certainly have some impact on naming, but it is hard to me to guess what names will really catch on. My entry from GoT is

    Sansa

  5. Asante, from actor Asante Blackk
    Birdie, from Jessica Simpson’s daughter
    Jed, from Bachelorette winner Jed Wyatt
    Maelyn, from Voice winner Maelyn Jarmon
    Malone, from rapper Post Malone
    Maverick, from Michael Phelps’ son
    Myracle, for Voice contestant Myracle Holloway
    Nadia, from TV show Russian Doll
    Navy, from Jason Aldean’s daughter
    Phoebe, from actress Phoebe Waller-Bridge
    Rami, from actor Rami Malek
    Rue, from TV show Euphoria
    Shahadi, from actress Shahadi Wright Joseph
    Taeyang, from K-Pop singer Taeyang and a baby on 90 Day Fiance

    That’s probably enough for right now :-).

  6. Adeya, Navy, and Birdie strike me as good guesses.

    The list I researched is heavy on the celebrity baby names — I included a bunch from 2018 that might show up stronger in 2019 stats. Also, if we see an uptick in some of these names, it might just be that the celebrity picked a name that was on-trend, not that their choice inspired a lot of copycats.

    Ace (son of Josh Altman)
    Aeko
    Catori (fn and mn for Chris Brown’s son — if they show up in name stats, more likely in 2020)
    Huckleberry (son of Josh Houser)
    Myles (son of Miranda Kerr)
    Valentine (son of Dan Reynolds)
    Ciro (son of Lionel Messi)
    Lucca (son of Chyno Miranda)
    Valentino (son of Romeo Santos)
    Hayes (see below, also Jessica Alba’s son)
    Hart (sons of Meghan King Edmonds from Real Housewives of Orange County)

    Banks (daughter of Hilary Duff)
    Marli (daughter of Chance the Rapper)
    Roux (daugher of athletes Dom Dwyer & Sydney Leroux Dwyer)
    Rosalia (singer)
    Kaavia (daughter of Gabrielle Union & Dwyane Wade)
    Lia (daughter of actress Natalia Sánchez)
    Abril (daughter of singer Melendi)
    Miren (daughter of YouTuber Verdeliss)
    Posie (YouTubers’ Cole & Sav’s daughter)
    Embrii
    Eryss (twin daughters of Erica Dixon from Love & Hip Hop Atlanta)
    Alaiya (Alexis Skyy from Love & Hip Hop Hollywood)

  7. Also Lisann gained huge popularity on the site Nameberry for some time. I wonder what that’s about and if it’ll be a one hit wonder for 2019.

  8. Also Michael Phelps recently had a son named Boomer, but it might be a falling name because of the OK Boomer trend.

  9. Here’s my first nomination for the forthcoming year

    Wenliang

    for the medical doctor Li Wenliang who sent out one of the first alarms on the Wuhan SARS outbreak, was harrassed by Chinese officials, got infected, and died of the disease in February 2020.

  10. I’ve got a feeling that Charli will rise for girls, thanks to TikTok star Charli D’Amelio. I think there’ll be a rise across the board of girls named Charlie/Charlee/Charley.

  11. Thanks alex! Great idea to bring in TikTok stars.

    I don’t know much about the platform, but, according to Business Insider, some of the other stars have great names/nicknames: Riyaz, Gima/Garima, Gil/Gilmher, Avani, Sameeksha, etc.

  12. Another name for the next year:

    Crozier

    for naval captain Brett Crozier. Crozier was never in the stats, but beside its relation to the current Corona epidemic it follows the trendy surname style.

  13. And one more for 2020:

    Lenin

    for Lenin Gutierrez who refused to serve a customer at Starbucks without mask. The refused customer made a video calling his name (misspelling it as Lenen) that went viral. As a consequence, Lenin got tips from all over the world.

  14. Next nomination for 2020:

    Neowise

    for the comet currently visible with the naked eye. It may have appeal to some parents: The modern name element “Neo” meets “wise”. One may think of Samwise Gamgee here.

  15. Another nomination for 2020

    Lynika

    for Lynika Strozier, a Black biologist who died of Covid-19 in July this year. I found her obituary in sciencemag. The name Lynika was only once in the stats with 5 baby girls in 1977.

  16. Another nomination for 2020 or even 2021 (because the presidential election was late in this year):

    Robinette

    from the middle name of Joseph Robinette Biden, president-elected right now. Of course, it is so feminine, I expect some girls with that name. The name Robinette was last in the SSA stats in 1990.

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