It’s never been a better time to be a geek than now.
Technology has advanced to the point where it might as well be science fiction. Superhero movies have made C-list comic book characters like Rocket Raccoon and Ant-Man household names. Astrophysicists like Neil deGrasse Tyson are celebrities who have made cosmology cool. So maybe that’s why parents are naming their children after the most unlikeliest things: Instagram filters, planetary bodies and video game characters.
According to Baby Center’s trendiest baby names of 2015, Instagram, science and science fiction have been climbing up the top naming trends of the year so far.
So what are parents naming their children?
The top Instagram-inspired names come from the app’s many filters, and seem to equally influence both male and female baby names. The top name so far is Lux, which, while not technically a filter, does have photo-editing capabilities used in the app. It’s up 75 percent for boy names, and even has a little influence on girl names.
Filters like Ludwig (up 42 percent), Amaro (up 26 percent), Reyes (up 10 percent), Hudson (up 4 percent) and Kelvin (up 3 percent) have risen in the male baby names list. For baby girls, Juno (up 30 percent), Valencia (up 26 percent) and Willow (up 13 percent) have risen through the ranks.
Then there’s outer space. The great beyond. The final frontier. Many names have also been influenced by celestial bodies, which Baby Center says may be due to the popularity of current events (like water on Mars, especially) and pop culture (think the popular novel and movie, The Martian). Names like Venus, Gaia, Soleil, Moon, Cassiopeia, Luna and Stella were popular female baby names, with Venus jumping a whopping 68 percent. While the trend didn’t affect male baby names as much, Jupiter, Sunny and Star have gained some popularity, with Jupiter jumping 50 percent.
Then there’s the video game characters, specifically the female protagonists or icons of various games. According to Baby Center:
This year Joule (ReCore) climbed 52 percent, Meryl (Metal Gear Solid) jumped 51 percent, Helena (Dead or Alive, Gears of War) leaped 29 percent, and Rayne (BloodRayne) gained 26 percent. Jade (Beyond Good & Evil) gained 19 percent, Joanna (Perfect Dark) shot up 20 percent, Jill (Resident Evil) climbed 17 percent, and Kat (Gravity Rush) also jumped 15 percent.
Names of classic, iconic heroines are trending up as well: Think Yuna and Lulu from Final Fantasy, Mileena and Kitana from Mortal Kombat, and Zelda from Legend of Zelda. (Ahead of his time, the late comedian Robin Williams named his daughter after Zelda, too.)
Why is this important? People have named their kids Seven and Apple and Scout and more, in the past. There’s the recently infamous Hashtag, Phelony and worst. And now they’re naming them after apps and more silly things. Who cares?
But what this shows is a new crowd of parents who look up to the stars for inspiration. Who look to their means of creativity for inspiration. Who look to their favorite video game heroines for inspiration. It shows just how major the geek/nerd crowd is becoming less of a Big Bang Theory-like group of outcast caricatures, and more of a ubiquitous subculture that is both shaping and being shaped by our world.
Who knows? If we keep this up, we’ll be naming our children after Tesla (for both the popular scientist and energy company), after recent discoveries and inventions, and after our favorite and most influential apps (perhaps a baby Uber, anyone?).
Just don’t name your kids iPhone6s or Hoverboard, or they’ll never forgive you.