What’s in a baby name?

Talk about it

The trend of naming children after actors and characters in pop culture is becoming more and more apparent to the U.S. Social Security Administration.

“Pop culture has definitely influenced baby names in the past few years,” said Kia Green, spokesperson for Social Security Administration. “Heavily publicized names, names of celebrities and their children, characters in books, movies and TV shows have all shown up on our list of top baby names in the nation.”

According to that list, Isabella and Jacob are the nation’s most popular baby names for 2010.

Both are main characters in the book and movie series “Twilight.”

Another “Twilight” name moving up the list is Kellan — after actor and Dickinson native Kellan Lutz — best known for playing Emmett Cullen in the “Twilight” series.

Other pop culture names climbing the list are Knox, the name of one of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s children, and Tiana, the name of the main character in the Disney movie, “The Princess and the Frog,” according to a press release by the U.S. Social Security

Administration.

The names of teens and their babies from the T.V. shows “16 and Pregnant” and its spin-off, “Teen Mom,” such as Sophia, Maci and Bentley, have also grown in popularity, according to the press release.

,“A recent trend in the top girls’ names is a return to names that were popular in the early to mid-1900s,” Green said. “Names like Isabella, Ava, and Chloe, which had disappeared almost completely from the top 1,000 girls’ names, have surged in popularity in recent years, which suggests a trend in naming newborn girls after their grandmothers.”

One surprising change in the top baby names list is that the name Elvis is no longer in the top 1,000 for the first time since 1954, according to the press release.

In North Dakota the top baby names by decade are:

r 1960: David and Mary.

r 1970: Michael and Michelle.

r 1980: Joshua and Jennifer.

r 1990: Matthew and Ashley.

r 2000: Jacob and Madison.

r 2010: Mason and Sophia, followed by Jacob and Isabella.

Green says although names have followed pop culture, “It is really the parents’ decision what to name their child, there are many things that play into that like family history and culture.”

Howard I. Kossover, public affairs specialist for North Dakota and western Minnesota Social Security Administration agreed and said the popularity of names is ever-changing.

“There are many things parents consider when naming children,” Kossover said.

Tags: baby names, news