Avatar is doing very well at the box office right now. And whenever a sci-fi/fantasy film (or book, or TV show) hits big like this, I can’t help but wonder: What baby names could it inspire/popularize?
What about…
- Neytiri (pronounced nay-TEE-ree), the pretty Na’vi warrior-princess
- Eywa (pronounced AY-wah), the Na’vi deity
- Toruk (“last shadow”), the massive flying creature
- Toruk Makto (“rider of the last shadow”), any Na’vi who manages to tame/ride a Toruk
- Na’vi (“the people,” pronounced nah-vee), the sentient, blue humanoids of Pandora
I wouldn’t be shocked to see any of these pop up in my local birth announcements.
Have you watched the film? If so, which Avatar name (or word) do you think stands the best chance of catching on as a baby name?
Update, 2021: It’s been over a decade since Avatar came out. So…what happened? Neither Eywa nor Toruk ended up in the U.S. baby name data. But the name Neytiri debuted in 2010, and the name Navi saw higher usage post-Avatar. (Though the rise of Navi could be due to the influence of Navy.)
Update, Dec. 27, 2022: The long-awaited Avatar sequel — Avatar: The Way of Water — was released earlier this month. It features a slew of new characters, with names like…
- Neteyam
- Lo’ak
- Tuktirey (nickname “Tuk”)
- Kiri
- Tsireya (nickname “Reya”)
- Aonung
- Rotxo
- Ronal
- Tonowari
- Payakan
Which of these new Avatar names will turn into baby names, do you think?
Will Kiri and Reya, which are already baby names, see significantly higher usage in 2023?
Finally, could “Avatar” itself ever pop up in the U.S. baby name data?
(At least five U.S. babies have to be given a particular name within a single calendar year for that name to be included in the publicly available dataset.)
Sources: Avatar Wiki | Fandom, Avatar: The Way of Water – Wikipedia, SSA
Images: © 2009 20th Century Studios, © 2022 20th Century Studios