Star Wars Day: The franchise's influence on baby names
Luke Skywalker is only the third most influential Star Wars character on baby names, new research has revealed.
Star Wars has had a major impact on baby name trends (pictured above)
Advertisement
Advertisement
Office for National Statistics (ONS) baby name data, analysed by Bitcade – the UK’s largest producer of custom-built arcade machines – reveals how characters from the Star Wars franchise have influenced baby name choices in England and Wales in 2020.
Of the 42 names analysed, 15 featured in the baby name data between 1996-2020 and 12 featured specifically in the 2020 list.
The data revealed these names are the most influential on baby name trends:
| STAR WARS RANK (2020) | NAME | CHARACTER | GENDER | 2020 RANK | 2020 COUNT | ||||||
| 1 | ROSE | ROSE TICO | F | 61 | 803 | ||||||
| 2 | FINN | FINN | M | 73 | 757 | ||||||
| 3 | LUKE | LUKE SKYWALKER | M | 109 | 544 | ||||||
| 4 | OWEN | OWEN LARS | M | 132 | 418 | ||||||
| 5 | REX | CAPTAIN REX | M | 143 | 392 | ||||||
| 6 | KYLO | KYLO REN | M | 252 | 189 | ||||||
| 7 | LEIA | PRINCESS LEIA | F | 382 | 115 | ||||||
| 8 | LANDO | LANDO CALRISSIAN | M | 856 | 34 | ||||||
| 9 | OBI | OBI-WAN KENOBI | M | 1,051 | 26 | ||||||
| 10 | REY | REY | F | 1,449 | 21 | ||||||
| 11 | MACE | MACE WINDU | M | 1,548 | 15 | ||||||
| 12 | CORNELIUS | CORNELIUS EVEZAN | M | 2,404 | 8 | ||||||
| n/a* | PADME | PADME AMIDALA | F | : | 0 | ||||||
| n/a* | HAN | HAN SOLO | M | : | 0 | ||||||
| n/a* | BREN | MAJOR BREN DERLIN | M | : | 0 |
* None in 2020, but name did feature between 1996-2019
Looking at the most recent year, Rose (Tico) topped the list, with 803 baby girls being given the moniker in 2020. Finn and Luke (Skywalker) followed, with 757 and 544 baby boys being given the names respectively in the same year.
Owen (Lars), (Captain) Rex, Kylo (Ren), (Princess) Leia, Lando (Calrissian), Obi(-wan Kenobi), Rey, Mace (Windu), and Cornelius (Evezan) also featured in the 2020 list.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Unsurprisingly, the likes of Darth Vader, Chewbacca, Jabba the Hutt, Yoda, and Jar Jar Binks did not feature at all.
Other factors also affect the trends of baby names. Click here to find out how nature inspires choice of baby names
Jack England, Director at Bitcade commented:
“Here at Bitcade, our arcade cabinets have a massive library of retro games with around 2,900 games pre-loaded, but the Star Wars design is amongst our most popular cabinet styles overall.
When it comes to choosing a baby name, inspiration can come from anywhere, so with this in mind – and Star Wars Day just around the corner (4th May) – we analysed baby name data from Office for National Statistics (ONS) to discover how Star Wars characters have influenced recent baby name choices in England and Wales.
Advertisement
Advertisement
“Our research found that Rose (Tico), Finn, and Luke (Skywalker) had the most significant influence in 2020. Owen (Lars), (Captain) Rex, Kylo (Ren), (Princess) Leia, Lando (Calrissian), Obi(-wan Kenobi), Rey, Mace (Windu), and Cornelous (Evezan) all also featured in the 2020 list”.
As well as looking at the 2020 figures in isolation, Bitcade also discovered the franchise’s influence on baby names over the last 20 years (years spanning 2001-2020).
The data revealed the following names are the most influential on baby name trends over the previous decades:
| STAR WARS RANK (2001-2020) | NAME | CHARACTER | GENDER | 2020 COUNT | TOTAL COUNT (2001-2020) | ||||||
| 1 | LUKE | LUKE SKYWALKER | M | 544 | 44,816 | ||||||
| 2 | OWEN | OWEN LARS | M | 418 | 25,118 | ||||||
| 3 | ROSE | ROSE TICO | F | 803 | 13,867 | ||||||
| 4 | FINN | FINN | M | 757 | 10,739 | ||||||
| 5 | REX | CAPTAIN REX | M | 392 | 2,802 | ||||||
| 6 | LEIA | PRINCESS LEIA | F | 115 | 1,774 | ||||||
| 7 | KYLO | KYLO REN | M | 189 | 483 | ||||||
| 8 | OBI | OBI-WAN KENOBI | M | 26 | 229 | ||||||
| 9 | CORNELIUS | CORNELIUS EVEZAN | M | 8 | 145 | ||||||
| 10 | MACE | MACE WINDU | M | 15 | 128 | ||||||
| 11 | REY | REY | F | 21 | 93 | ||||||
| 12 | HAN | HAN SOLO | M | 0 | 84 | ||||||
| 13 | LANDO | LANDO CALRISSIAN | M | 34 | 56 | ||||||
| =14 | PADME | PADME AMIDALA | F | 0 | 3 | ||||||
| =14 | BREN | MAJOR BREN DERLIN | M | 0 | 3 |
Looking at the 20-year duration, Luke (Skywalker) topped the list, with 44,816 baby boys being given the moniker between 2001-2020. Owen (Lars) and Rose (Tico) followed, with 25,118 baby boys and 13,867 baby girls being given the names respectively in the same duration.
Finn, (Captain) Rex, (Princess) Leia, Kylo (Ren), Obi(-wan Kenobi), Cornelius (Evezan), Mace (Windu), Rey, Han (Solo), Lando (Calrissian), Padme (Amidala), and Bren (Derlin) also featured.