Popular Baby Names For 2013 Include Katniss, Django, Inspired By Pop Culture

Expect to see little Katnisses and Djangos in kindergarten in a few years, as Nameberry’s list of popular baby names for 2013 shows the continuing power of pop culture trends.

Nameberry, an online baby name database for expectant parents seeking inspiration, based its list of popular baby names for 2013 on 8 million searches so far this year. Many of the names featured prominently may never crack the top 100 on the Social Security Administration’s list of baby names, but there could come a day when names like Imogen, Flynn, Bodhi or Seraphina join the currently fashionable Jacob, Sophia, Mason and Emma.

Nameberry’s list is interesting for its diversity as well as the influence of pop culture on popular searches for a boy’s or girl’s name. Django and Katniss both cracked the top 10 due to the popularity of “Django Unchained” and “The Hunger Games,” respectively, but they are unlikely to appear on the SSA’s list. For boys' names, Nameberry users searched most for Asher, Finn, Declan, Django and James. Asher is a biblical name -- one of the sons of Jacob, an extremely popular name now -- and has risen rapidly to become a possible candidate to crack the top 100. Declan, Irish in origin, has seen a strong spike in popularity, jumping 18 spots to be the third most popular boy’s name in 2013, notes Nameberry.

For girls' names, Imogen, Charlotte, Harper, Eleanor and Violet were among the most popular names searched for by expectant parents. Imogen, Celtic in origin and meaning “beloved child,” is popular on Nameberry, but the site notes the name has yet to crack the top 1,000 list and it may be some time before it becomes more popular. The second most popular girl’s name, Harper, got a boost from Victoria and David Beckham choosing the name for their daughter, and Harper is a popular name for other celebrities. Other popular female names linked to celebrities include Everly, Channing Tatum's new daughter, and Seraphina, the child of Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck.

Despite all the attention on Blue Ivy and North West, neither of those baby names cracked Nameberry’s top 100 girls' names. The names on Nameberry’s list may not appear on the SSA’s 2013 list, but they are a gauge of what could casually influence parents searching for baby names.