2014's Most Popular Baby Names Were Clearly Inspired by Dubious Characters

By Dustin Rowles | Lists | December 3, 2014 |

By Dustin Rowles | Lists | December 3, 2014 |

The year’s most popular names have been released, and according to BabyCenter, Netflix is behind the rise of a few names, like “Galina” and “Piper,” from Orange Is the New Black,, which rose 67 percent and 28 percent from the year before, and “Frank” and “Claire,” from House of Cards,also rose in popularity up 19 percent and 14 percent.

I understand the desire to name kids after people in pop-culture. My eldest is named after my favorite singer (not Axl!), and I attempted to sneak Amelia past my wife for one of the twins, though she rejected it when she found out it was because it’s the name of Amy Pond in Doctor Who (I still managed to secure a couple of names from the Jason Katims’ universe).

This year actually saw a huge upswing in baby names inspired by pop culture, although most of the inspirations were inspired by dubious characters. Here are the 10 most popular boys and girls names and their obvious namesakes.

10 Most Popular Girl Names of 2014

1. Sophia

2. Emma

3. Olivia

4. Ava

5. Isabella

6. Mia

7. Zoe

8. Lily

9. Emily

10. Madelyn

10 Most Popular Boy Names of 2014

1. Jackson

2. Aiden

3. Liam

4. Lucas

5. Noah

6. Mason

7. Ethan

8. Caden (N/A — Not a real name, obviously)

9. Jacob

10. Logan

Source: NYDailyNews