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Help[Opinions] Re: Celebrity-Inspired Names in the Top 1000
in reply to a message by molly
I would think Draven has much more to do with the character in the cult film "The Crow" than with Chester Bennington's child.
And it would be hard to attribute Joaquin's place on the list to Kelly Ripa's child because of its being such a traditional name in the Hispanic community.
Peyton was also definitely on the rise before anyone outside of his hometown had ever heard of Peyton Manning.
And I'd bet Santino has more to do with Santino Quaranta than Santino Rice:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santino_Quaranta
It's also a bit dicey to correlate celebrity babies too much with general name fashions, since of course celebrities are affected by the same general shifts in taste as the rest of us are. So many celebrity baby names are more results rather than causes of a particular trend. There are some, such as Maddox, Kingston, and Bria (from Eddie Murphy's daughter) which do seem to be linked to the birth of such babies. But there are others like Hazel where the name was clearly on the rise several years before the celebrity baby was born. Julia Roberts may have reinforced Hazel's rise a bit, but she didn't start its comeback. And I think the number of people who would even know the middle name of John Edwards' son would be way too tiny for that to have been an influence on the rise of Atticus.
But I think most of your list shows definite influences, and your comment about most parents not deliberately trying to create "namesakes" but just being inspired by publicity given to celebrity names which fit in with fashionable sounds is right on. :)
And it would be hard to attribute Joaquin's place on the list to Kelly Ripa's child because of its being such a traditional name in the Hispanic community.
Peyton was also definitely on the rise before anyone outside of his hometown had ever heard of Peyton Manning.
And I'd bet Santino has more to do with Santino Quaranta than Santino Rice:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santino_Quaranta
It's also a bit dicey to correlate celebrity babies too much with general name fashions, since of course celebrities are affected by the same general shifts in taste as the rest of us are. So many celebrity baby names are more results rather than causes of a particular trend. There are some, such as Maddox, Kingston, and Bria (from Eddie Murphy's daughter) which do seem to be linked to the birth of such babies. But there are others like Hazel where the name was clearly on the rise several years before the celebrity baby was born. Julia Roberts may have reinforced Hazel's rise a bit, but she didn't start its comeback. And I think the number of people who would even know the middle name of John Edwards' son would be way too tiny for that to have been an influence on the rise of Atticus.
But I think most of your list shows definite influences, and your comment about most parents not deliberately trying to create "namesakes" but just being inspired by publicity given to celebrity names which fit in with fashionable sounds is right on. :)
This message was edited 5/29/2008, 8:20 AM
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Good point about Draven. I haven't seen the movie.
I almost included a little note with Joaquin about why I included it. Of course it's a traditional name, it's been in the top 1000 every year since 1944. But, at least in terms of ranking, the name has had a considerable boost since 2003, when Kelly Ripa's son was born. I think it may have come to seem like an acceptable name in non-Hispanic families. I certainly see it used by non-Hispanic posters on naming boards.
Again, good point about Peyton. I had assumed its popularity was much more recent. But its use (before and after Manning was drafted) would indicate that Peyton Manning is not the dominant influence on the name. This is kind of the opposite of what happened with Ashton (totally switched from a girl name to a boy name once Ashton Kutcher got popular).
And Santino Quaranta does sound like a more likely influence than Santino Rice.
Of course, it is difficult to point out when celebrity babies influence naming trends. There is an important distinction between the Hazels and the Maddoxes, which I opted not to really discuss in my initial post. Just from hanging around naming boards, the acceleration of the discussion of Hazel after Julia Roberts gave birth was amazing. Clearly, there was already a trend that was the engine of this discussion (and the reason Julia Roberts chose the name Hazel), but this high profile usage accelerated the discussion.
Atticus...who knows. Many of these associations are based on my history of hearing new names and being intrigued by them. I remember seeing a Vanity Fair spread that discussed John Edwards's son's mn, and I quickly fell in love with the name.
Thanks for your comments, though. As usual, they're right on.
I almost included a little note with Joaquin about why I included it. Of course it's a traditional name, it's been in the top 1000 every year since 1944. But, at least in terms of ranking, the name has had a considerable boost since 2003, when Kelly Ripa's son was born. I think it may have come to seem like an acceptable name in non-Hispanic families. I certainly see it used by non-Hispanic posters on naming boards.
Again, good point about Peyton. I had assumed its popularity was much more recent. But its use (before and after Manning was drafted) would indicate that Peyton Manning is not the dominant influence on the name. This is kind of the opposite of what happened with Ashton (totally switched from a girl name to a boy name once Ashton Kutcher got popular).
And Santino Quaranta does sound like a more likely influence than Santino Rice.
Of course, it is difficult to point out when celebrity babies influence naming trends. There is an important distinction between the Hazels and the Maddoxes, which I opted not to really discuss in my initial post. Just from hanging around naming boards, the acceleration of the discussion of Hazel after Julia Roberts gave birth was amazing. Clearly, there was already a trend that was the engine of this discussion (and the reason Julia Roberts chose the name Hazel), but this high profile usage accelerated the discussion.
Atticus...who knows. Many of these associations are based on my history of hearing new names and being intrigued by them. I remember seeing a Vanity Fair spread that discussed John Edwards's son's mn, and I quickly fell in love with the name.
Thanks for your comments, though. As usual, they're right on.
This message was edited 5/29/2008, 12:49 PM
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I hadn't noticed Joaquin being used by non-Hispanic families myself. (Is Ms. Ripa's spouse Hispanic?) I just checked my figures for Nebraska, the state where I have breakdowns by ethnicity, and there were 10 boys named Joaquin born in Nebraska in 2007. 8 of them were listed as Hispanic. Of course in a small state like Nebraska it's hard to say how significant 2 non-Hispanic boys out of 10 are. :) But certainly Joaquin Phoenix as well as Ms. Ripa's son could be introducing the name to non-Hispanic parents.
Thanks so much for this discussion. :)
Thanks so much for this discussion. :)
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