Pac-Man, Space Invaders, Asteroids…if you grew up in the 1980s, you know all about Atari.
But you might not realize that, at the height of the video game system’s popularity, dozens of U.S. babies were actually being named Atari:
| Boys named Atari | Girls named Atari | |
| 1982 | 16 | 11 |
| 1981 | 13 | 7 |
| 1980 | 10 | 12* |
| 1979 | 10* | . |
| 1978 | . | . |
The brand name comes from the Japanese word atari (“to hit a target”), which is used in the board came Go in the same way “check” and “checkmate” are used in chess — as a warning to one’s opponent that he/she is in imminent danger of capture.
The baby name Atari dropped out of the U.S. baby name data after 1983, but has recently returned thanks to professional football player Atari Bigby, who made his NFL debut in late 2005.
Bigby was born in Jamaica in 1981. He was named by his grandmother, who said “she didn’t name him Atari after the video game [system], she just liked the Japanese word, which has connotations of both hitting a target and hitting the lottery.”
What are your thoughts on the name Atari?
P.S. Pong has been used as a baby name as well, incidentally.
Sources:
- Atari – Wikipedia
- Hanrahan, Phil. “Packers: Life After Favre.” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel 2 Oct. 2009.
- SSA
Image: Atari2600
