Parents are naming their babies after Instagram filters, Empire characters
When it comes to baby names, new parents are turning to a Fox drama about a hip hop mogul and his family, an app popular with narcissists, and outer space for inspiration.
BabyCenter, a website offering pregnancy and parenting advice, looked at the names of 340,000 babies born in 2015 to registered users. For the sixth year in a row, Sophia is the number one name for girls (with Emma, Olivia, Ava, and Mia close behind), and for the third time in a row, Jackson is in the top spot for boys (followed by Aiden, Liam, Lucas, and Noah). While the most popular names aren't a surprise, some of the more creative names certainly are — including Royalty (up 90 percent from last year for both boys and girls) and Sultan (up 25 percent).
Naming babies after regal words was prevalent, with Duchess up 75 percent and Reign up 54 percent. Other trends included monikers based on the solar system — Venus saw an increase of 68 percent, Jupiter 50 percent, and Sunny 43 percent for boys and 18 percent for girls — and the hit show Empire, with Dre up 77 percent, Lyon up 6 percent, Hakeem up 55 percent, and Lucious back on the list for the first time in three years.
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Instagram filters were also behind some of the trending names, with Lux up 75 percent from 2014, Ludwig up 42 percent, and Amaro up 26 percent for boys, and Juno up 30 percent and Valencia up 26 percent for girls. If people are going to start naming their children after apps or their tools, Hefe and Lo-fi are still better than Baby Tinder or Waze.
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Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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