“Arya” cracked the 100 most popular girls’ names the year Game of Thrones ended

So far as baby names go, “Arya” hits that sweet spot between geeky but not so weird that other kids will tease your child. And it’s more popular than ever:

Naming a child is a big responsibility; you want to give them a name that stands out, but not so much that other kids make fun of them. And there are so many places to get inspiration. You can draw on your own family, from history, from religion…or from pop culture.

It’s not uncommon for people to name their kids after their favorite characters from movies, TV and books, but you have to be careful the reference isn’t too obvious. “Katniss, Anakin, Daenerys, and Legolas are obvious geek names, cool in their own right, but they will draw a very specific kind of attention and comparison,” said Scott Rubin, author of Naming Your Little Geek: The Complete List of Comic Book, Video Games, Sci-Fi, & Fantasy Names, speaking to Romper. “Meanwhile, there are names that don’t scream ‘geek’ at first glance like the ones we gave our children: Benjamin and Maximilian.” These are “stealth geek names.”

Honestly, I can’t think of many famous Bens and Maxes from geeky pop culture. (Ben Kenobi? Mad Max?) But the point stands: you’re probably not gonna get a lot of Star Wars fans naming their new child Chewie, but they might go for Luke. Ditto for Game of Thrones fans. Mostly likely, they’re not going to name their daughter Daenerys, but they could probably get away with something less showy, like Arya.

And indeed, data from the Social Security Administration indicates they have. The name “Arya” has become increasingly popular since 2010, the year before Game of Thrones aired and the first year the name cracked the list of the top 1000 most popular names for girls. In 2019, “Arya” actually broke into the top 100, with 3,043 little girls born after the savior of Winterfell.

In fact, Arya Stark killing the Night King in the final season of the show might be a big part of the reason the name jumped up in popularity. If you wanna name your daughter something that connotes power, bravery and perseverance, “Arya” was looking pretty good in that moment.

“We attach certain meanings, attributes, and qualities of personalities to names,” Cohan said. “We might have expectations for how the person will behave, what they will do for work, what their values are. And assumptions are made — right or wrong — about names. For example, do we imagine that all the Brittanys will become neurosurgeons? They might, but the name may not denote that given its association with Britney Spears.”

Time will tell how Game of Thrones names fare moving forward. Somehow I think that the name “Daenerys,” already rare, got even less popular after the series finale. And I doubt names like “Robb” or “Jon” really needed the help.

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