You Won't Believe Which Marvel Character Has Become A Popular Baby Name
Popular culture has always been an influence on baby names. It's normal for parents looking to name their offspring to be inspired by novels, films, TV shows, or songs that they love, especially if there aren't any pressing family names that need to be passed to the next generation. Comic books have been around and inspiring devotion long enough to inspire some particularly fervent fans to give their children names borrowed from the Marvel or DC universes — Nicolas Cage's son Kal-El, named after Superman's Kryptonian identity, being one famous example (via Today).
Now, parents whose children are going to have to grow up in the real world rather than the celebrity ecosystem seem to be taking a page from Cage's book, and one extremely surprising Marvel character has reportedly created a somewhat alarming baby naming trend. Marvel has plenty of heroic characters that one could imagine a parent wanting to replicate some of the energy of in their children, but this particular character is actually one of Marvel's most menacing supervillains.
There are a lot of kids named Thanos being born
A recent study from the Organic Baby Formula website (via ComicBook.com) analyzed the Social Security Administration's Name Popularity Index to spot the surprising trend. It shows Thanos, the Mad Titan himself, who in his most widely known incarnation at least, exterminated half of all life in the entire universe from existence, is now a popular choice for baby names.
Disney-owned characters, in general, seem to be running the board in the baby name department, and Thanos is the ninth most popular of these going back to 2018, when "Avengers: Infinity War" was released. That's an unusual name, to say the least, taken as it is from a death-worshipping megalomaniac, but it goes to show how influential and popular the character has become in the last few years.
The number one spot for Disney-inspired names? That would be occupied by "Quill," evidently influenced by one Peter Quill, also known as Star-Lord, the leader of the Guardians of the Galaxy played by Chris Pratt in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Other trending baby names inspired by Marvel include Valkyrie, Wanda, and even Loki, which makes you wonder what's in store for the future if the old adage that most people grow to reflect their names turns out to be true.