Baby Names from TV and Film: 1980s - 2010s

Continuing our baby names timeline, we find that many baby names between the 1980s and 2010 saw major spikes specifically because of TV characters, actors, and film/pop‑culture phenomena.  

1980s: Soap operas, sitcoms & the rise of surname‑style names.

Ashley — Huge spike; reinforced by The Young and the Restless soap opera and rerelease of Gone With the Wind nostalgia.

Taylor was also boosted by soap characters and the surname‑as‑first‑name trend.

Madison — Splash (1984) is the direct cause of this name’s rise; it barely existed before the film.

Jordan rose due to sports culture (Michael Jordan) and TV usage.

Jennifer continued its dominance from 1970s pop culture and TV.

Jessica got some reinforcement from the sexy Who Framed Roger Rabbit Jessica Rabbit and TV characters.

Brandon Walsh (Jason Priestley) Dylan McKay (Luke Perry)

The 1990s name spikes came from teen dramas, Disney, sitcoms & multicultural influence. Influencers included Friends, Beverly Hills 90210, Full House, Disney films, and rising pop stars.

Two names from Beverly Hills 90210 were Brandon and Dylan.

Ashley stayed popular and was reinforced by Fresh Prince of Bel‑Air (Ashley Banks).

Samantha was popular in the 1960s from Bewitched but was boosted by Sex and the City (1998).

Chandler came directly from Friends as the name barely existed before the show. Phoebe also saw a rise with Friends.

Ariel spiked after The Little Mermaid (1989) and another Disney-inspired name was Jasmine which saw a huge jump after Aladdin (1992).

Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner)

In the first part of the 2000s, we saw names from blockbuster films, fantasy franchises such as Harry Potter, Twilight, The OC, Lost, and the explosion of reality TV.

Isabella/Bella shot up because of Twilight (Bella Swan) and Jacob, which is an old Biblical name and popular in Jewish culture for centuries, became the top boy name of the decade, boosted by the  Jacob Black character in the film.

Aiden was a trendy name reinforced by Sex and the City.

Another old-fashioned name, Emma, saw a upick due to actresses (Emma Watson) and pop culture visibility.

Madison continued its post‑Splash dominance.

Logan made the charts, aided by Wolverine/Logan in X‑Men films.

Sawyer from Lost (2004) appeared as a first name. 

Keira jumped into usage because of actor Keira Knightley’s fame.

The 2010s were shaped by Game of Thrones, The Hunger Games, Frozen, Star Wars, and the Marvel universe.

Khaleesi  (Emilia Clarke)  Arya Stark (Maisie Williams)

Arya is one of the biggest pop‑culture name spikes ever, from Game of Thrones. Add to that the very unusual Khaleesi. Invented by Game of Thrones author George R. R. Martin, they became real life baby names.

Elsa took a leap after Frozen (2013).

Rey was added after Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015).

Luna got attention by Luna Lovegood’s popularity in the harry Potter films.

Harley comes from Harley Quinn’s film resurgence.

Olivia was more popular because of the actresses (Olivia Wilde, Olivia Munn) and TV characters.

Baby Names from Television Shows: 1950s 1960s and 1970s

In the 1950s, television was still new, but as the decade progressed, a few popular shows had an impact on naming babies. Both the names of TV characters and TV actors saw an increase.

Ricky was popularized by Ricky Nelson on Ozzie and Harriet and by I Love Lucy's Ricky Ricardo and little Ricky. And Lucille Ball’s fame helped keep the name prominent, more often as Lucy (or Lucie after Lucille Ball named her daughter that).

Donna got a boost from The Donna Reed Show (1958).

Annette rose in popularity due to Annette Funicello on The Mickey Mouse Club (1955). Her career in recording albums and Disney and beach party films kept that name going.

Beaver was not widely used as a legal name, but Leave It to Beaver (1957) was a top show and the brothers Theodore and Wally saw bumps in popularity.

The 1960s saw the first major measurable spikes in baby names - particularly for girls - tied directly to TV characters. Search results confirm that celebrity‑influenced names surged most strongly in the 1960s. 

Samantha skyrocketed after Bewitched (1964). Also, the TV baby, Tabitha, from that program started to appear.

Ginger was a popular and glamorous character on Gilligan’s Island (1964).

Maryann, Gilligan, Ginger

Mary and Maryann were already common, but were probably reinforced by Maryann on that same island, and Mary Tyler Moore in The Dick Van Dyke Show, which also gave a boost to her character's name, Laura.

Who wouldn't want the dreamy name Jeannie from I Dream of Jeannie (1965)?

Julia was given attention from Diahann Carroll’s groundbreaking show Julia (1968).

Sean is listed as a boy's name that increased in popularity and is credited to Sean Connery, though he was more of a film star.

Hart as Sabrina

The 1970s were “trendy and TV‑inspired.” This is the decade when TV characters directly shaped the top baby names.

Jennifer was the #1 girl name of the decade, boosted by multiple TV characters, including in the Love Story film, book, and TV adaptations.

Marcia and Cindy from The Brady Bunch (1969) saw increases.

TV characters named Sabrina consistently caused spikes. Sabrina Spellman appeared in the 1960s–1970s as the animated Sabrina the Teenage Witch in early Archie comics and cartoons, and from 1996–2003 in the sitcom Sabrina, as portrayed by Melissa Joan Hart. The character and name moved into the next century with a 1999–2004 animated series with Sabrina as a younger teen.

Cheryl was a popular name, and so was actor Cheryl Ladd (Charlie's Angels) and supermodel Cheryl Tiegs. Later, Riverdale had one of the most recognizable modern “Cheryl” characters.

The old-fashioned 1950s name Laverne even got a little boost from Laverne & Shirley (1976) as did Shirley by the same show.

Rhoda was a character on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and then her own show, Rhoda.

Again, girls' names were more likely to come from TV. Like "Beaver," no one was really naming their little boy "Hawkeye," but Benjamin and Pierce saw bumps due to M*A*S*H (1972).

Baby Names Update

 

Photo via Pixabay

BabyCenter parents share their baby's name, so the website doesn't predict the top names but just gives a live look at trends. If you are reading this in the second half of 2023 or later, the 2023 list I mention here is probably different by year's end.

Olivia and Liam were the most popular baby names of 2021 and 2022. In fact, the top five baby girl names all remained the same in 2021 and 2022. Here's an oddity - look at how many girls' names end in "a." 

The top five boy names from 2021 to 2022 were the same though the order shifted, no new names broke into the top of the list.

BabyCenter is kind of unique as they track names in real-time so the list is always being updated. We are halfway into 2023 and it looks like Liam who has held that top spot for boys since 2019 has dropped and Oliver and Noah are battling it out for the top. 

BabyCenter is a digital parenting resource and this year's list changes as parents share what names they’ve chosen for their newest additions.

Check your name or the name of your kids by their birth year. My name was in the top 20 the year I was born and doesn't even appear on lists now. Such is the popularity of names.

Baby Names and the Movies

A Note from Ken

When I wrote this post in 2010, it was about popular baby names at that time and particularly the effect of the Twilight movie series on baby names. What I didn't expect was how popular the post would be over the years - and that it would create another "Twilight effect."

When a post gets a lot of hits/visits, it moves up in my site's rankings and also in the way search engines rank pages. That attracts visitors and it also attracts spammers. (Hello India!) This post (in its original  2010 form) got more spam comments than any other post. It is not the most popular post here but it is the most popular with spammers who want to leave a comment with links to their sites or services. I took down the post for a few weeks and made some changes to the post and title in 2021but it still had the "twilight spam effect."

It's back and we;ll see what happens this time.

“Anything can influence baby names, from pop culture to literature to music and celebrities,” says Jennifer Moss, author of The One-in-a-Million Baby Name Book and founder of Babynames.com.

Looking back at the top baby names in 2009 shows that Moms and Dads were looking to popular vampire books and the first family for baby names. Fame can be fleeting - Miley (Cyrus) and Jonas (as in the brothers) took a stock market dive at the end of 2009.

            

Isabella was the top baby name for girls, Jacob for boys. Isabella’s climb to the top in 2009 ended Emma’s one-year reign. Jacob is on an 11-year run at the top. The surname of the Twilight movie series vampire Edward Cullen became the fastest-rising baby boy name in 2009.

Barack didn’t crack the top 1,000 for boys in 2010, but a version of President Obama's daughter’s name, Malia, was the fastest riser for girls. Maliyah moved up 342 spots, to No. 296, while Malia came in at No. 192, rising 153 spots.

Updating to now, we find these are the top U.S. names currently as supplied by the Social Security Administration from when parents were getting their baby a SS number so they could create all their official paperwork.

Here are some other sources if you are looking for baby names. 

• The Baby Name Wizard
• The Complete Book of Baby Names
• 100,000 + Baby Names: Fascinating Lists, Naming Trends, Key to Gender-Neutral Names
• Baby Names Made Easy: The Complete Reverse-Dictionary of Baby Names
• Beyond Ava & Aiden: The Enlightened Guide to Naming Your Baby
• Best Exotic Baby Names: New, Historical, Ancient, Mystical