78% of mums look to celebrities for inspiration when choosing their baby’s name
Monday, 19th May 2014, MummyPages.ie, Ireland`s leading destination for mums today revealed that while celebrity names provided inspiration for almost eight out of ten mums, most end up choosing a more traditional baby name for their child.
Not surprisingly the baby name section of the MummyPages website is one of the most popular areas of the online parenting community. With over 50,000 baby names in its database, expectant mums are browsing the celebrity baby name pages first, followed by the statistically most popular names, with Irish baby names section third in line from the vast array of search options available.
Supporting these findings is the new trend emerging internationally, whereby parents are not only choosing baby names inspired by Celebrities, but their TV show character names. Examples include Gwen Stefani and her husband Gavin Rossdale, who named their son Apollo Bowie Flynn Rossdale. While the fantasy TV show, Game of Thrones has led to a huge surge of newborns being named after Arya Stark, the daughter of Lord Eddard Stark in the series. The name was a huge hit in the UK coming in at 65th position in the top 100 baby names for the nation last year, while also topping the US charts as the fastest growing baby name in the last two years.
While on the other hand there has been a revival in more traditional names Robbie Williams chose to call his daughter Theodora Rose Williams, Lily Allen named her daughter Ethel May and Elton John & David Furnish called their son Elijah Joseph Daniel. The names chosen by celebrities for their newborns have resulted in a huge increase in babies registered in that year with the same name. Last August, Michael Bublè and his wife gave birth to their son Noah, the name Noah has since sky rocketed in popularity. Data analysed by the US Government Social Security Administration indicates the name Noah was second most desirable name for a boy in 2013 with the trend continuing for 2014
“We are seeing a noticeable return to more traditional baby names of late,” says Laura Haugh, Mum-in-Residence for MummyPages.ie “Our sense is that mums in Ireland are moving away from naming their children after celebrities and pop stars, instead opting for a name that has special meaning or symbolism for the parents and will stand the test of time.”
“Our mums often comment that while names like Rihanna, Beyoncé and Apple sound great when referred to within showbiz circles, they can’t imagine their children pursuing more serious careers with these names – like being a high court judge for example!
For more information and baby name inspiration please visit our baby name database – https://www.mummypages.ie/baby-names
For reference:
Over three hundred mothers took part in the MummyPages survey which aimed to examine the influence celebrities and famous people have on the names parents give to their newborns. The survey which was conducted over a two week period asked mothers a series of questions relating to their preference of picking unusual names influenced by a famous person versus choosing more traditional names.
