Game of Thrones (and other movie/tv) Names for 2012

The television show Game of Thrones based on George R. R. Martin's A Song of Fire and Ice series is in its third season, and more popular than ever! This was reflected in last year's names, especially for girls. Here are some from 2012 from the Social Security Administration's database:

Daenerys showed up for the first time, with 21 babies.

Nymeria, the name of one of the character's pet wolves, entered the top list with 5 namesakes.

Arya catapulted the name Aria (still the more popular spelling) into the top 100. in 2011 there were 386 baby Aryas; last year the number increased 51% to 754. Overall, all the spellings of Aria jumped 64%.

The biggest mover is the name Khaleesi. This isn't actually a character's name in the series, but a title held perennial favorite character Daenerys. in 2011, there were 34 girls named Khaleesi (and one other spelling variant, Kaleesi). In 2012, that number jumped to 205 (adding 5 more variant spellings)

Talisa increased from 13 babies in 2011 to 20 in 2012. This name wasn't used in the book series; just in the television show.

Asha increased slightly from 197 to 211. However, Asha is a name used frequently in the Indian community, as it means "wish; hope" in Sanskrit.

Shae (81 up from 77) -- Shae, in various spellings (Shea being the most popular, also Shay, Shaye etc.) as been around for a while.

in 2011, there were 32 girls named Lyanna, and it was the 9th most popular spelling of the name Liana (out of 27). In 2012, there were 46, and was the 7th out of 26 most popular spellings in 2012. In all spellings, the name is declining in popularity, but this spelling is increasing. Not bad for a character who died before the series began and is only mentioned a few times!

Renley is a male character. There were 10 boys named Renly last year, but there were 5 girls (none in the previous years for either sex)! The more popular spelling of this name for girls is Renlee, which leads me to believe that for girls, it's popularity probably comes from elsewhere.

There were 5 girls and 9 boys named Tully in 2012, (0 girls and 10 boys in 2011).

Catelyn hasn't shown a significant increase; probably because, even though the character pronounces is /KAT uh lin/ and is called Cat, it still looks like /KATE lin/, which has been declining in popularity since the 1990s.

There still aren't any Cerseis or Sansas, but those aren't favorite characters.

For boys, the names are less distinctive (i.e, they've already been in use for decades). The favorite character of people I know is Jon, whose name did increase from 340 in 2011 to 385 in 2012. The name Ned had 15 namesakes in 2011, which dropped to 12 in 2012. Jaime went from 730 babies in 2011 to 760.

Tyrion had 38 namesakes in 2012 (up from 25 in 2011)

Theon entered the charts with 12 boys given the name.

There were 10 boys named Renly.

Mance showed up 5 times and Rayder showed up 8 times.

10 boys were named Bran (up from 7 in 2011).

9 boys in 2011 were named Stark, and 16 in 2012. This could be influenced by Iron Man, though.

In other movie news, Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games books, which were turned into movies spawned two names: Katniss (12 in 2012, none in previous years) and Primrose (16 in 2012, the highest number ever. The previous record was set by 10 baby Primroses in 1910; the last time it made the chart was in 1982). 32 girls were named Rue, up from 13 in 2011. For boys, Finnick entered the database for the first time with 9 namesakes.

Merida, the protagonist in the Disney/Pixar film Brave had 19 namesakes in 2012. That is another record; the last time we saw that name was in 2002. The most times it was ever used in one year was 1949, when there were 13.

Eponine, a character from Les Miserables, which won an Academy Award last year spawned her first namesakes ever to make the SSA database: there were 7 born last year. Meanwhile, Cosette, a name that has been around the charts since 1912, had 114 namesakes last year (up from 97 the previous year).

Not a movie (although they made it into one in the 1980s), but the name Eilonwy, from Lloyd Alexander's The Chronicles of Prydain series made the SSA database for the first time in 2012. There were 5 girls named that. 

...and the biggest movie winner! Drumroll please!

Cataleya. In the movie Columbiana, this character is played by Zoe Saldana. In 2011, it showed up in the naming pool for the first time with 46 namesakes in 3 different spellings. In 2012, there were 1358 Cataleyas (with 28 different spellings!) 

I haven't finished doing all the calculations, but I'm pretty sure this is the largest increasing name of the year!

I didn't see the movie; I'm fairly certain this name was made up for the character, though. It is probably based on Cattleya, the genus of orchids (named for botanist William Cattley).