Since it began in 2011, the HBO drama Game of Thrones has affected the lives of millions of people in some way or another. Some cried for hours when their favorite characters died; some even had Game of Thrones-themed weddings.
But others went the extra mile—not only has the TV show been a part of their lives, but they have made sure that it will be a part of the lives of their children, too.
How?
By naming their babies after the fictional Game of Thrones characters. That’s right—children of generations to come will have playdates with little Khaleesis, and hopefully the future Joffreys will make a point to show more kindness than their namesake.
Using data from MooseRoots‘ names topic, we looked at all of the most prominent Game of Thrones names to see if there was a spike in the number of babies given any of these same names after 2011. We ended up finding eight _Game of Throne_s characters who have influenced parents when it comes to naming their children. The first name data for The United States is from the Social Security Administration.
Arya
Arya had been slowly increasing in popularity since recorded data for the name began in 1986, but it saw a healthy bump in 2011—273 babies were named Arya in 2010, 387 in 2011, and 1,315 in 2013.
Sansa
Sansa was completely off the radar until 2013, when 11 babies were named after the second-oldest Stark child.
Bran
Unlike his older sister, Bran saw a very small spike in popularity in the 1970s, before Game of Thrones even began, and stayed rather stagnant until 2011. After that, the name saw a steady rise to 11 babies in 2013.
Theon
Even Theon, the traitor who invaded Winterfell, has seen a resurgence in popularity. Granted, the name only went from 6 new occurrences in 2010, to 15 in 2013, but it’s still something considering it was in constant decline before Game of Thrones aired.
Tyrion
Who doesn’t love Tyrion? The babies and toddlers waddling around out there with his name are a lucky few.Newborns Named Tyrion
Khaleesi
There weren’t enough Khaleesis to register a blip on the map in 2010, but 28 baby Khaleesis joined our ranks by 2011, and 213 newborns were given the name in 2013.
Daenerys
The Khaleesi scores again! But this time, with her given name. Not enough people jumped on the Daenerys bandwagon in 2011 to register in our data, but there were 21 babies named Daenerys in 2012 and 67 in 2013.