Choosing a baby’s name can be a difficult task, especially when parents cannot agree. For this reason, some families end up choosing to let fate decide, or to name their children after a character they admire, whether fictional or real .
Characters from the Game of Thrones series, footballers, singers or cartoons are behind many of the boy and girl names registered by the National Institute of Statistics (INE). Do you want to know them?
Game of Thrones
The Game of Thrones series has been inspiring since 2012 the parents of girls in the United States and the United Kingdom, where there has been a considerable increase in the names Khaleesi and Arya respectively.
Since the series was released in 2012, the influence of the female names Daenerys and Arya has been especially felt in our country.
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Daenerys : there are 41 girls who bear this name in Spain according to INE data and with an average age of 1.9 years.
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Arya : This name has been around for a little longer. There are already 201 girls registered as Arya and with an average of 2.3 years.
Other TV series
The influence of the names of television characters is not something exclusive to Game of Thrones, since other recent series such as The Walking Dead or mythical ones such as Friends and Sensacion de Vivir also mark or set a trend in their day.
Sensation of Living, premiered in 1990 and lasted ten years on the screen. The names of its main characters, Brenda, Kelly, Brandon and Dylan, experienced a significant increase during that decade. Not surprisingly, the average age of the girls named Kelly and Brenda is 23.5 years and 24.6 years, respectively.
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Brenda : 392 girls were registered with Brenda’s name in the 1980s, a figure that shot to 1,154 in the 1990s, coinciding with the premiere of the series.
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Brandon : There were only five children by the name of Brandon in the 1980s. After the series’ premiere, the number increased to 218.
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Dylan : The same happened with the Dylan name, although it has continued to set the trend in subsequent decades.
The legendary series, Friends, premiered in 1994 and ran for ten years. At this time, the name of one of their most beloved characters began to sound among the girls:
- Phoebe : a total of 58 girls with an average age of 15.8 years, bear this name. Before the series’ premiere date, there was no “Phoebe” registered with the INE.
In 2010 the series The Walking Dead was released and the name of one of its most beloved characters has begun to sound on the INE lists, and is emerging as one of those that will set a trend in 2017:
- Daryl : Although the average age of boys with this name is 17, in the 2000s there were only 16 boys named that way. After the premiere of the series, and without having finished this second decade, there are already 24 registered under the name of Daryl.
The Lord of the rings
The trilogy of “The Lord of the Rings” was released in Spain in 2001 at the rate of one movie a year. And since then, two female names and one male name have emerged that have begun to sound:
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Arwen : The name Arwen, a character played by Liv Tyler, is registered with the INE a total of 122 times and the girls who carry it have an average age of 6.7 years.
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Galadriel , on the other hand, has been put 47 times but the average is 15.2 years, that is, it began to be in full fever of these film premieres.
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Viggo : this boy’s name is registered a total of 45 times, the average age being 16.7 years. Viggo Mortensen was the actor who played Aragorn, one of the most beloved characters in trilogy.
Star Wars
Star Wars is another of the sagas that has inspired the names of many boys and girls in Spain, although at different times and with different frequencies.
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Han and Luke , with an average age of 18.6 years and 17.4 years respectively, have around a hundred boys. The original trilogy was released in the 80s but “The Phantom Menace” hit the screens in 1999; just 18 years ago.
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Leia , meanwhile, is a name that has not lost its steam in recent years, so the average age of the girls who wear it (405 in total) is 7.6 years.
Other movie characters
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Neo : a total of 297 children with an average age of 6.6 years, bear this name. The influence, without a doubt, is given by the character of the Matrix played by Keanu Reeves. Before the year 1999, the release date of the first film of the trilogy, there is no record of this name among Spanish children.
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Bella: Bella’s name began to sound strongly in 2010, two years after the premiere of the first film in the Twilight saga, whose protagonist bears this name. The number of girls named Bella in the 2000s was only 85, a figure that rose to 180 as of 2010.
Cartoon characters
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Snow White is one of the best-known Disney classics of the 40s and 50s. Although this girl’s name stopped being used in Spain from the 80s, the influence that the animated character had on the girls of the previous generations.
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Heidi : this animated series premiered in Spain in 1975 and the increase in the name was very notable throughout the 70s and 80s. There are currently 484 women named Heidi with an average age of 38.2 years.
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Ariel : the name of the Little Mermaid began to sound in the 90s, coinciding with the premiere of the Disney movie. Currently, the average age of girls named Ariel is 23 years old.
Singers
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Shakira : the singer Shakira began to sound in Spain 17 years ago, although the average age of the girls who bear her name is 12.2 years. In total there are 615 Shakiras in our country.
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Chenoa : this feminine name of animal origin is currently carried by 267 girls with an average age of 12.8 years. Before the premiere of Operación Triunfo in 2001 (a television program where the singer Chenoa became known), no girl with that name had been registered in Spain.
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Rhiana or Rhianna : both versions of this name are carried by a total of 161 girls in our country. The singer Rihanna rose to world fame in the year 2007, which would explain that the average age of girls named Rhiana is 10 years.
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Kylie : 26 girls in Spain are named after Kylie, and their average age is 15.5 years, coinciding, curiously, with the world fame that the singer Kylie Minogue obtained in the 2000s.
Football players
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Iker : although this name of Basque origin can be considered common and does not respond to any fad, the INE shows a great increase in the 2010s, when the 3,600 Iker in Spain went to 19,174, coinciding with world fame from goalkeeper Iker Casillas.
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Zidane : there are currently 34 children called Zidane in our country and their average age is 16 years, coinciding on the date with the signing of soccer player Zinedine Zidane for Real Madrid.
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Neymar : a total of 137 children with an average age of 2.3 years are named after the footballer Neymar, popular in our country in the last four years for having played for FC Barcelona.
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Lionel or Leo : Children with the name Lionel or its short version, Leo, have increased notably in the last decade, coinciding with the popularity of the FC Barcelona player, Leo Messi. In the year 2000, there were 145 children with the name of Lionel in our country, a figure that rose to 234 as of 2010. The increase is much more notable with the diminutive Leo, which has gone from 1,621 children in the 2000s to 9,810 as of 2010.
Other baby names
If these names do not convince you, you can consult any of the links that you will find below where we give you more proposals for names for boys and girls; original, classic or in several languages.
35 strong women’s names for girls proud to be
173 French names for your baby
The boy names that will be a trend in 2017
The girl names that will be a trend in 2017
Neither boy nor girl: 51 unisex baby names
Looking for a name for your baby? 101 girl names to inspire you
Looking for a name for your baby? 101 boy names to inspire you
51 Italian names for your baby that will make you fall in love
Arabic baby names
The English baby names that are trending in 2017
Strong and warriors: 51 Viking names for your baby that you will love
Galician baby names
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