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Parents Turn to Social Media, Popular Novels for Baby Names
According to the 2015 edition of the top 100 baby names recently released by a US-based website BabyCenter, parents are beginning to name their babies after photo filters found on the popular application Instagram.
BabyCenter.com puts out the list of popular names each year. This year, the most popular name for girls was Sophia, while Jackson came out on top for boy names.
Many of the names to hit the list this year are drawn from popular YouTube celebrities or characters from novels or video games. A new trend to hit the list, though, includes baby names taken from Instagram filters, writes Kirstie McCrum for The Mirror.
The most popular names taken from the app includes Lux, Juno, Reyes, Ludwig, Amaro, Valencia and Willow.
BabyCenter believes this to be the result of new parents spending increasing amounts of time on social media, with many using the filters on a daily basis before posting photos to Facebook or Instagram. “So why not put those favorite filters to an even better use?”
“These are all names of Instagram filters and tools that add depth, artistry, and sparkle to lackluster landscapes and washed-out selfies,” the site explains.
Many of the filter names are a hit for both boys and girls, with Lux up 75% for boys at the same time it moves slightly up the girls list. Although the name is technically not a filter, it is a photo-editing tool that offers users the ability to balance exposure, add brightness, and make images pop.
Meanwhile, Ludwig is up 42% for boys, while Amaro jumped 26%. Juno, used for outdoor photos, reached 30% higher on the girls’ list. At the same time, Valencia, which offers a soft glow to selfies and other photos, was up 26%, reports John Boone for ET.
A few months ago found BabyCenter naming 2015 as “The Year of the Gender-Neutral Baby,” with names like Carson up 39% for girls and 14% for boys, Amari, up 9% for girls and 16% for boys, and Karter up 45% for girls and 9% for boys. Also high on the list of names breaking gender rules were River, Rory, and Phoenix.
Other names on the list take their inspiration from the solar system and royal titles, with some even paying homage to their college years by choosing names reminiscent of a night of drinking with names like Bud, Blaze, Miller, and Keno.
Parents are finding names such as Royalty, up 88%, Duchess, up 75%, and Princess, up 22%, to be popular choices for girls this year, while names such as Royal, up 36%, Prince, up 10%, and King, up 8%, gaining sway with the boys. Reign, chosen by reality star Kourtney Kardashian for her baby boy in 2014, jumped 54%.
Name choices were also inspired by teen novels, including Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, and The Fault in Our Stars. Although Katniss was found to be losing traction as it dropped 10% this year, Hazel, taken from the character Hazel Grace Lancaster in Green’s The Fault in Our Stars, rose 52%. Meanwhile, Augustus (The Fault in our Stars) increased by 2%, Thomas (The Maze Runner) by 8%, and Adam (If I Stay) jumped by 5% for boys.
In the UK, Poldark and politics are found to be influencing the top baby name choices for 2015.
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