We’ve revealed the top 20 below.
The top three most popular video game inspired baby names
Note: click for fullsize To discover the most popular baby names inspired by video games, we’ve analyzed US birth name records from the 1980s. Using seed lists of the most popular character names from video games, we’ve then totaled the number of babies given this name following the video game’s release to discover which name was most popular following the character’s first video game appearance. The data revealed that Jacob, from Halo: Combat Evolved, is the most popular video game inspired baby name, with more than 412,000 babies registered with this name since 2001, the game’s release date. As Halo fans will know, Captain Jacob Keyes is a Naval Officer in the UNSC Navy and a key character from this game. Halo: combat evolved is also celebrating its 20th anniversary this year! The second most popular name was revealed to be Jack, from Tekken. While Jack refers to multiple characters in the game, Jack was first introduced to us in 1994 as an android and has appeared in almost every Tekken game over the years. Over 219,000 babies were born after the game was released and the popularity of the name Jack spiked as recently as 2005. Unsurprisingly, Mario features third in our list. Created by Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto after being unable to secure licensing rights to use Popeye to be the protagonist in his next game [1], Mario has been a much-loved character in the gaming world since 1983. After just five short years, the name spiked in popularity in the US – coincidentally the same year that Super Mario Bros 2 was released.
Which video game releases influenced an increase in babies being given character names?
We’ve also analyzed the years following the release of the video games to discover if the characters influenced baby naming. The data has shown that seven of the top 20 most popular video game character names saw a spike in the number of names registered the same year the game was released. Note: click for fullsize These names include Jacob, from Halo: Evolved (2001), Jade from Beyond Good and Evil (2003), Chloe, from Life is Strange (2015), Marcus, from Gears of War (2006), Samantha from Gone Home (2013), Scarlett from Blackwood Crossing (2001) and finally, Dante, from Devil May Cry (2001) with that same year recording the highest number of babies named Dante. Did you call any of your kids these names? Or are you named after a video game character? Methodology We have taken a seed list of 100+ popular video game characters’ names to find the number of babies given that name since the video game’s release, using national baby names data from the 1980s through to 2020. The year with the highest number of births registered with that name since the game’s initial release has been used to find out if the video game characters influenced an increase in babies named after them. Note: Data available on request
