Khaleesi, Arya, and other characters that inspired baby names

Khaleesi - The honorific reference to Emilia Clarke's character Daenerys, Khaleesi, broke into the top 1,000 names in both 2014 and 2015 thanks to the highly popular 'Game of Thrones.' The fictional Dothraki term is used for a wife of a ruler, and it became the 756th most popular name in 2014, dropping slightly to No. 816 the next year.

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Phoebe - Phoebe was not popular until 'Friends' came around. After the first season, the name jumped 231 spots to No. 581 in 1995. By the end of series, nine years later, the name reached No. 405. With the world's undying love for the character, Phoebe has only ascended since.

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Jaime - Jaime is a curious case. Actually, less babies have been named Jaime since the series came out. There were over 1,300 Jaimes in 2001, and just over 500 in 2018.

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Rachel - Rachel owes its '90s popularity to the Rachel Green on 'Friends,' who even had a hairstyle named after her. During the show's run, the name reached a peak of No. 9. Since the series finale, however, the name has become significantly less common.

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Dawson - A year after the hit teen drama 'Dawson's Creek' premiered in 1998, tons of babies were named after James Van Der Beek's titular character, bumping it up to No. 136.

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Luke - It seems many fathers wanted to say the famous Darth Vader phrase, as the name Luke first cracked the top 100 after the introduction of Luke Skywalker in 'Star Wars.' In 2001, once the prequel trilogy hit theaters, the name was steadily in the top 50.

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Leia - The year after the first 'Star Wars' film in 1977, the name Leia predictably cracked the list, and though it disappeared in 1981, it resurfaced in 2006 one year after 'Star Wars: Episode III' was released. The name continued to rise, hitting No. 421 in 2015 following the 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' reboot.

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Elle - Reese Witherspoon's portrayal of Elle in 2001's 'Legally Blonde' coincided with the next year's report of the name Elle jumping to No. 613. The name was surely also helped along by Elle MacPherson's '90s supermodel run.

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Grace - NBC's 'Will & Grace,' starring Debra Messing as titular character Grace Adler, appears to be responsible for the name's surge from the late '90s to early '00s. A year after the show's premiere in 1998, Grace went from the No. 54 spot to No. 27. It continued to rise each year, finally topping off at No. 13 in 2004, at the height of the series.

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Lorelai - The actual name of both 'Gilmore Girls' (Rory is short for Lorelai) of course entered the top 1,000 in 2006, hitting No. 868 in 2007, the year of the show's end. Nostalgia for the show, and its Netflix reboot, brought the name up to No. 651 in 2015.

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Aidan - Since the 2000 debut of the level-headed furniture maker named Aidan Shaw on 'Sex and the City,' the name has steadily increased in popularity, peaking at No. 39 in 2003. The name's alternative spelling, Aiden, eventually surpassed it and peaked at No. 9 in 2011.

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Tiana - After Disney debuted its first black princess in 2009's 'The Princess and the Frog,' the name Tiana shot up in popularity, from No. 603 to No. 335.

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Olive - Abigail Breslin starred as the endearing Olive in 'Little Miss Sunshine,' a year before the character named made its first appearance in the top 1,000. Emma Stone's following Olive character in 'Easy A' brought the name up even more, and since since then the distinctive name has been enjoying a steady incline.

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Arya - A less common spelling, Arya's rise in the ranks coincides with the record-breaking viewership of 'Game of Thrones,' which debuted in 2011. The name rose from No. 942 to No. 412 in just two years, and the parallel popularity of the character and the name has only continued to surge. For a girl who has no name, that's quite a feat!

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Meadow - The first daughter of 'The Sopranos' leading man Tony Soprano, made the name Meadow popular two years after the show’s premiere in 1999, breaking the top 1,000.

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Ally - Fox's 'Ally McBeal' premiered in 1997, and Calista Flockhart's titular character pushed the name Ally up to No. 417 one year later.

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Ariel - Two years after the 1989 release of Disney's 'The Little Mermaid,' everyone wanted to have a baby Princess Ariel. The name peaked at No. 66 in 1991.

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Archer - FX's animated sitcom 'Archer' sparked a rise in popularity ever since it premiered in 2010, jumping from No. 549 to No. 289.

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Aria - Sara Shepard released the first 'Pretty Little Liars' book in 2006, but Aria didn't see a spike until the book was adapted for TV in 2010. A year after the premiere, the name jumped from No. 353 to No. 157. Since then, the name has only grown more popular, hitting its peak at No. 29 in 2015.

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Jasmine - Throughout the '90s, Jasmine remained in the top 30 most popular names, but it first spiked in the two years following the 1992 release of Disney's 'Aladdin,' the highest-grossing film that year with more than US$500 million in international revenue.

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Blair - Modestly popular until 2000, Blair was absent from the rankings until 2011, when the name came back into the top 1,000 thanks to 'Gossip Girl,' starring Leighton Meester as the preppy queen Blair Waldorf. The show was at its height during that time, and though it went off the air in 2012, it's still seen a small increase, perhaps due to its persistent popularity on Netflix.

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Carrie - Carrie hit its peak popularity in 1976 and 1977, the same years Sissy Spacek starred in the eponymous film based on Stephen King's novel, and Carrie Fisher first became Princess Leia. It declined for four decades after that, only seeing a relative surge in 2003, when Sarah Jessica Parker introduced everyone to Carrie Bradshaw on 'Sex and the City.'

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Lara - The 1965 premiere of 'Doctor Zhivago,' starring Julie Christie as Lara, was the first to get the name into the top 1,000. Despite Lara Croft being a video game character in 1996, the name didn't see another surge until the premiere of Angelina Jolie's 'Lara Croft: Tomb Raider' in 2001, peaking at No. 634 in 2002.

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Chrissy - One year after the 1977 premiere of 'Three's Company,' the moniker for Christine jumped to No. 377, largely thanks to Suzanne Somers.

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Jacob - For about 10 consecutive years beginning in the 2000s, the name Jacob was a fixture at the top of the list, and for six of those years Jacob Black of the 'Twilight' series was the most well-known werewolf in the world. Taylor Lautner's portrayal of the lovable character helped keep the name in its place until 2012, the year the last film of the saga came out.

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Daisy - Daisy was first made popular by Daisy Buchanan in F. Scott Fitzgerald's 'The Great Gatsby.' After a long, slow decline, the name rose back to popularity in 1981, when it ranked No. 328 two years after 'The Dukes of Hazzard' character Daisy Duke became an American icon. Since then, the name has only risen in popularity.

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Mia - Mia Thermopolis, the teenage princess of fictional Genovia played by Anne Hathway, was likely behind the name's rise to No. 76 just one year after the release of 'The Princess Diaries' in 2001. It has since risen through the ranks, peaking at No. 6 for three consecutive years.

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Noah - While the biblical name has been popular for decades, the modern surge happened the year that the popular romance novel 'The Notebook' was released, in 1996, hitting No. 50 for the first time in the century.

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Sabrina - Audrey Hepburn's 'Sabrina' caused the first spike in 1954, reaching No. 245 the following year, but the name did not hit its peak, No. 53, until 1997, one year after the sitcom 'Sabrina, the Teenage Witch' premiered.

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Cullen - After the release of the first 'Twilight' novel in 2005, the famed vampire clan's surname saw an enormous leap in the charts, moving from No. 728 in 2005 to No. 485 in 2009. It reached its peak in 2010, the same year 'The Twilight Saga: Eclipse' was released.

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Elyse - After a 27-year hiatus from the list, Elyse returned in 1983 at No. 702, just one year after Meredith Baxter began to play Elyse Keaton, the matriarch on the sitcom 'Family Ties.' The show and name's popularity only rose as the series continued, reaching its peak at No. 305 in 1987.

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Felicity - Felicity jumped more than 400 spots from 1998 to 1999, landing at No. 390 the year after J.J. Abram's eponymous show premiered. Keri Russell's performance kept the name up there through the show's run.

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Jax - The short form for Jackson only became a regular in the top 1,000 names after the premiere of 'Sons of Anarchy' in 2008, helped along by protagonist Jax Teller. Throughout the show's run, the name made its way all the way up to a high of No. 209.

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Mallory - A year after the eldest daughter in the 'Family Ties' household, Mallory Keaton, appeared in 1982, the name made its entrance into the top 1,000 list for the first time, at No. 333. During the show's run, the name peaked at No. 91 in 1987.

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Skylar/Skyler - While the feminine Skylar saw a huge jump after Minnie Driver's Skylar Satenstein in 'Good Will Hunting,' the more modern surge, and the Skyler variation, happened between 2011 and 2012, jumping from No. 457 to No. 372, matching the cult-status emergence of 'Breaking Bad,' in which Anna Gunn played Skyler White.

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Tamera - A year after the premiere of sitcom 'Sister, Sister,' starring Tia and Tamera Mowry, the latter twin's name appeared in the top 1,000 after a 12-year absence.

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Maeve - Thandie Newton's character on 'Westworld,' despite being an android prostitute, caused a spike in babies named Maeve in 2016.

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Elsa - After the release of Disney's hugely popular animated film 'Frozen,' Elsa, the heroine voiced by Idina Menzel, made a huge jump from No. 527 in 2013 to No. 286 in 2014.

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Harry and Hermione - According to statistics gathered by MooseRoots, names from J.K. Rowling's 'Harry Potter' series started to increase in popularity from the early 2000s. Perhaps the popular name Harry could be overlooked as coincidence, but the rank of Hermione in the scale of most popular names in the US jumped 12,673 places from 2000 to 2003. Luna and Lily inspired similar spikes, as well as bad boys Draco and Lucius.

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Yara -

Yara Greyjoy isn’t the most well-known 'GoT' character, but her name gets more and more popular. 434 baby girls were named Yara in 2018.

From here, find out how tall the cast of 'Game of Thrones' is.

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Khaleesi, Arya, and other characters that inspired baby names

Would you name your child after your favorite character?

14/05/19 | StarsInsider

LIFESTYLE Baby names

Pop culture has always had a hand in what people wore, drove, ate, and talked about, but it’s also been a huge factor driving the rise and fall of certain names. A particularly unappreciated source of inspiration for baby names, however, is Hollywood’s world of fiction, though the Social Security Administration (SSA) data charting the popularity of names is hard to ignore.

Check out this gallery to see the characters whom viewers loved so much that they decided to name the future generation after them.