Hodor and Harambe appear to be early favorite name choices for babies born in 2017.
Seven babies sit in tummy tubs filled with water to cool down after a baby massage class held for young mothers in IJmuiden, about 17 km north of Haarlem, on March 24, 2009. REUTERS/United Photos

There’s still a few more weeks of 2016 to go, but people are already considering the best names for babies born in 2017. Nameberry released its official list of trending baby name for 2017, highlighting some of the top picks people were considering naming their children next year. However, the baby naming guide failed to mention two picks that appear to be top early picks on Twitter – Hodor and Harambe.

Just days after the baby naming experts released the top baby names for 2017, the hashtag #2017BabyNames began trending on Twitter Thursday, with many users adding the hashtag with their choices of baby names including "Game of Thrones" character Hodor and Cincinnati zoo gorilla Harambe.

The killing of Harambe sparked outrage across America back in May, and since Nameberry released its name forecast on Dec. 2, tweeters have called for expecting parents to memorialize the deceased gorilla by naming their children after him. Harambe was shot and killed by a zoo worker after a three-year-old boy climbed into his cage, which sparked a ton of controversy from animal lovers who believed the boy could have been saved without the gorilla having to be killed.

Nameberry did note that there seems to be an increasing trend of people naming their children after animals in 2016. The site expects the trend to continue in 2017 with people choosing to name their children, particularly baby boys, after animals like Tiger, Fox, Wolf, Lynx, Hawk and Falcon.

Although names of fictional characters in books, film and television are expected to be popular names in 2017 – especially female names of “Downton Abby” characters – Hodor, the name of a character from the highly popular HBO series, was also an early contender for television-inspired baby names in 2017, according to folks on Twitter. Hodor was a beloved and loyal servant on the T.V. series who was killed by White Walkers in an effort to save Brendan “Bran” Stark during season six of the show.

Holy names were the biggest trend for 2017, Nameberry predicted, including names of deities and multicultural mythology like Thor, Persephone, Clio, Luna, Zeus and Pandora.

Check out the full list of trending baby names for 2017 HERE.

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