Game of Thrones–inspired monikers are so 2015. According to BabyCenter, there has been a spike in parents naming their children after Pokemon Go characters. That means in the next few years, classrooms could be filled with Bulbasaurs and Jigglypuffs!
The website reports that Eevee is on the rise for girls (up 1,377 spots since last year), as is Onyx (up 2,184 spots) and Roselia, which has jumped a staggering 5,859 spots. For boys, Pokemon’s main character, Ash, has shot up 248 spots.
In addition, BabyCenter notes, the names Star and Ivy are suddenly surging, perhaps because of Pokemon Go creatures Starmie and Ivysaur.
BabyCenter says around half of its users are playing the wildly popular game regularly.
Global editor in chief Linda Murray is not surprised by the data. “We see babies named after TV show characters, celebrities and even Instagram filters,” she told BuzzFeed. “Millennials are particularly attracted to technology and ’90s nostalgia, which is one of the reasons we think Pokemon Go is already having an impact on baby-naming trends among pregnant women.”
Meanwhile, a woman who found a stray cat in Orlando, Florida, named it Mewtwo! “I had just downloaded Pokemon Go and was figuring out what it was all about,” Carey Burns told Huffington Post. “I heard this noise, it sounded almost like a bird … I followed the noise and there was this little kitten sitting there on the ground, and her leg was out at a weird angle. I just scooped her right up. She didn’t fight me or anything; she just seemed scared and hurt.”
Mewtwo is expected to make a fully recovery.
