People are naming their kids - and dogs - after 'Stranger Things' characters
Instead of looking at family history or honoring relatives, people are relying on pop culture for name inspiration when it comes to their children -- and pets.
Popular baby names this year include plenty of references to the sci-fi hit series Stranger Things.
Baby Center released its annual list culled from nearly 400,000 parents and found the Netflix show helped boost names like Nancy, Dustin (up 32 percent), Lucas (25 percent increase) and Winona Ryder's Joyce (up 23 percent).
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Another popular TV show influencing what our next generation will be called is The Walking Dead (no joke, the generic zombie name "Walker" is up 12 percent in popularity).
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In the dog world, the Stranger Things effect has bumped up popularity of names like Eleven and Barb, which are both up 12 percent from last year, before the Netflix series was released according to the dog walking and pet sitting website Rover.com. More than 50 percent of dogs this year are named after a movie, TV or book character or a real-life celebrity.
Top dog names more closely match human names this year instead of cutesy, clearly canine names like Fido and Sparky, according to the site's review. Nearly 30 percent of dogs have people-like names, as seen with the list of top five dog names: Bella, Lucy, Daisy, Lola and Luna for females and Max, Charlie, Buddy, Cooper and Jack for male pooches. Check if your dog makes the list.
Topics Stranger Things
Sasha is a news writer at Mashable's San Francisco office. She's an SF native who went to UC Davis and later received her master's from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. She's been reporting out of her hometown over the years at Bay City News (news wire), SFGate (the San Francisco Chronicle website), and even made it out of California to write for the Chicago Tribune. She's been described as a bookworm and a gym rat.
