Image Credit: Jack Rowand/The CW; Prashant Gupta/HBOGet ready for a lot more Sookies in the world. No, I’m not referring to the seemingly unstoppable trend of heroines torn between two vampires. According to this report, Sookie — the name of Anna Paquin’s heroine on True Blood, of course — is the hottest rising baby name for girls in 2010. On the boys’ side, Castiel, which happens to be the name of an angel played by Misha Collins on the CW’s Supernatural, tops the list.
While it’s possible that people just like those names, their rise to the top within a few years of both characters’ TV introductions seems more than coincidental. Looks like fans of True Blood and Supernatural‘s devoted cult following are procreating and indoctrinating their kids into fandom before they can even speak! The geeks shall inherit the earth, indeed. Personally, I think Misha Collins’ Twitter minions are behind his character name’s growing popularity.
PopWatchers, have you or would you name your child after a fictional character?
I don’t know that I would name my child after a fictional character, but I did name my dog Darcy after Pride and Prejudice’s Mr. Darcy.
LOL! I named my cat “Darcy”! Sometimes, when he’s happy, he gives me “the Look” (fans of Colin Firth know what I’m talking about).
And if I have a baby girl one day, “Elizabeth” is a beautiful name…
My other cat is named “Flynn”, after the great actor Errol Flynn.
My cat is Atticus, after Atticus Finch in “To Kill a Mockingbird.” I love literary names.
My friend’s parents named their new baby boy Atticus.
how pretentious
My son’s middle name is Atticus. And being intelligent and a lover of justice is not pretentious
I had a cat named Scout! And my boss has a dog named Boo Radley.
My son’s name is Walt. My favorite show is Lost. You do the math.
WAAAAAAAALLLLLT!
But Walt is not a unique name in the way the other names are. I could see someone getting the connection to Darcy or Atticus, but no one on earth would think you named your kid after a character on Lost, EVEN Lost fans. However, Walt is a wonderful name. You can call him “Wally”.
My old roommate also named her son Walt (well, Walter) partly in honor of LOST.
Bruce Willis and Demi Moore named one of their daughters Scout, which is cool. But naming after a character in a Pulizer Prized novel is different than a tv show. How humiliating to be a 40 year old “Gilligan.”
Too bad that Jean Louise is the character’s real name, and Scout is just a nickname.
Sookie was Lorelei’s best friend on Gilmore Girls…
That’s definitely the Sookie that I think of first too; not some kickass chick on a vampire show, but a frazzled chef.
That’s my favorite Sookie. I don’t even watch the Vampire Show. Sookie for me has the connotation of a scattered brain, bubbly personality that was my favorite chef. Go GILMORE MOVIE (Luke and Lorelai have to get married)
You can also spell the name Suki. But then it is prounouced Soo-key. Sookie rhymes with Cookie, Suki doesnt. But whatever. There was a character in the Witches of Eastwick named Suki/Sookie too (played by Michelle Pfeiffer)
When I named my son Harry everyone thought it was for Harry Potter, of which I am a fan. But it’s not, it’s for my Grandfather, whose name was Harry and I always said I would name a son after him.
My daughter’s name is Luna… and it was after a Harry Potter character.
I named my son Dexter, the best tv show ever! I don’t know how he will feel being named after a serial killer who can barely cope being around “normal” people, but my hubby and I love our little Dex =)
lol, you could tell him when he’s young that you named him after the dexter, the boy genius from dexter’s laboratory
V, that’s exactly what I was going to say !
Based on the character or not, Dexter is a bada** name! Awesome choice, Ashley G!
I have been posting on EW for a while now as Sookie just because I am a fan of both the books and the series and it is such a goofy sounding name. I just adopted a dog and named him Dexter and had planned to name a girl dog Sookie. I have never watched Supernatural so I never heard the name Castiel? Sounds like the liquid soap we use for a soap suds enema.
Each generation has such a diffrent view. When I was in high school, Dexter was always shown on TV or in books as the nerdy guy who had taped glasses and carried a briefcase. I think the new names are interesting, but PLEASE spell them in a logical manner (or not complain that no one realizes that Teiyghnah is pronounced “Tina”)Phonics is our friend.
Different, not diffrent. Phonics is my friend, but typing isn’t.
@Molly: I love the name Darcy and one of my kids will be named Darcy.
I also love the name Hermione (from Shakespeare’s “A Winter Tale” and Harry Potter). One of my kids will have the name Hermione, whether they like it or not.
One of your kids will be ridiculed mercilessly by their peers. But hey, I guess vanity kids are the next logical step after vanity pets, so hey, why not..
Lol. I will be nice and only use them as nicknames.
*middle names*
ALL kids will be ridiculed by their peers…it’s a part of life.
Did anyone see “Mad About You” when they were discussing what to call the baby? Lots of talk about what names would or wouldn’t humiliate the kid (they thought they had agreed to call a boy Deuteronomy, lucky they ended up with a girl they called Mabel, which was still a shock to their families)
Please don’t ruin your daughter’s life.
You are very young
Nope. I’m 22. I just love those two names.
I’m so jealous! I had to go with Luna because my husband didn’t want Hermione… or Ginevra for that matter. Good thing I’m hispanic and Luna worked out lol.
*The Winter’s Tale*
As long as she doesn’t marry a guy named Leontes, she’ll be fine.
My first and middle names are both book characters. My oldest child is Celia (turns out to be a character in Shakespeare’s “As You Like It,” not that I knew that at the time I chose it) and my youngest is Elinor, after the Jane Austen character. Naming kids based on books and other media is not exactly a novel concept. (Pun not intended, really.)
My mother was named for Gloria Swanson. Real person but still.
Obviously my name is Celia, but I was named after my Great-Great Grandmother. There are a lot of literary Celias. I used to hate my name, because people can’t pronounce it for some reason, but after taking literature in High school and college, it grew on me.
While this is humorous, I really feel that people are naming their kids this because the name has been brought to their attention, not because of the character.
I had never heard the name Castiel before reading this article, but I find it quite lovely.
Agreed. I’ve especially taken to the name Sookie since it has roots in the South, where I’m from. I probably won’t name my daughter that, but I love when interesting names that I had never been aware of are brought to my attention.
I believe Sookie was originally a nick name for Susan. I seem to remember an Agatha Christie book that used it.
My SIL was going to name her dog “Xena” to stop me from using the name for my daughter. It had nothing to do with the Warrior Princess, I just loved the name. Luckily, I had a boy and avoided a fight with my husband.
I have a friend named Xena, but she was born long before that show came on. Her parents named her after someone in her family.
I was named after the great Emma Peel!
I named one of my daughters Clementine after Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and the other Isabel, for the character in Legends of the Fall. =)
oooh I love that movie! And that’s actually a really nice name… usually I don’t like the fruit names, but this one works =)
I loved Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, but aren’t people more likely to think of the miner, 49′er, and his daughter Clementine?
Family members were worried she’d be teased, but I figure kids will ALWAYS find something to tease other kids about. So be it.
People will appreciate the allusion when she’s older. Spotless Mind is a beautiful film.
There’s fictional characters and then there’s fictional characters. Think of all the names out there based on Shakespeare or classical mythology or just great literature. Who’s to say that Sookie isn’t the new Juliet?
Sookie is the new Juliet (with Bill as her Romeo..).
Please don’t compare Sookie and Bill to Romeo and Juliet; it’s just insulting. And I don’t mean to Shakespeare.
I’m a Sookie Stackhouse fan and I even I agree with Danielle. Lol.
Anyone who names their child, Sookie, HATES their child.
I do not like the name Sookie AT ALL.
agreed
Sookie is too close to Snookie.
Any child named Sookie is going to end up being called “Suckie” until she graduates High School.
HA! Sookie? Snookie? I wouldn’t put it past people who “admire” the Jersey Shore to be poor spellers.
“Sooky” means pouty and cranky where I’m from. This is hilarious.
As I recall, one of the characters in John Updike’s The Witches of Eastwick was also Sookie. Though I’m not sure the spelling was the same.
Lorelai’s best friend on Gilmore Girls was also named Sookie.
I named my little one Lorelai! I wanted Layla originally, but my hubby didn’t want people singing the Clapton song all the time. Now she gets the Styx song…not better…lol
Sookie is an old southern nickname for Sister. You wouldn’t call an only child Sookie.
My daughter’s name is Cordelia or Cordy. I would not say she is named after Cordelia Chase, but that is where we got it and of course, King Lear’s favorite daughter.
Will & Jada Pinkett Smith named their daughter Willow after the BTVS character.
I thought they named her after Will because she looks like him? Jeden is to be named after Jada.
Yeah, I think it was their first kid is a boy so they gave him a masculine version of Jada in Jaden.
So the next being a girl got a femme version of Will in Willow.
Um, that didn’t end well for her. I’d be afraid to name my children after DOOMED characters…
I love the name Cordelia. So pretty. That’s definitely on my list of future baby names. And yeah the first time I heard it was from BTVS. So what.
Yeah, turns out I’m not that original. My daughter is also Cordelia (Cordy). I was also thinking Shakespeare, but am not bothered at all when people ask if I named her for the Buffy character.
I want one daughter to be named Willow after the amazing Willow Rosenberg and one child to be named Sawyer after Sawyer on Lost. It’s got good potential for a girl or a boy.
I LOVE the name Sawyer, its a great name!
I named my son Sawyer. We got the name from the character on Lost. Every name on our list came from either a character from TV and movies or an actor/actresses real name. Sawyer was by far our favorite though.
That’s funny because Charisma Carpenter was named after a bottle of perfume. I like Amber but after the characters got offed in both BTVS and House- I’m thinking maybe not.
My parents gave my brother his middle of Alexander after Alex P. Keaton.
That’s how my brother got his first name.
If my husband and I ever have a kid and it’s a girl, we’d name her Inara, which is Morena Baccarin (sp?) from Firefly.
such an awesome name
Wasn’t she a high-class ho? Why not Morena instead?
LOL. I’m having my second child in November- if it’s a boy we’re naming him Malcolm, after Captain Reynolds of course… if it’s a girl- she’ll be River. It’s kinda of lame- but my husband and I went through some pretty awful times and were looking at divorce- when we would watch Firefly, it was something that we both liked and it was a nice neutral subject for us… We’ve been back on track for two years now.
i know i kid named kiefer after kiefer sutherland
He’s not a fictional character! Jack Bauer is though.
Wasn’t Alia Shawkat named after a character from Dune?
Lucky she wasn’t a boy, or she’d have been named Muad’Dib.
I always loved that name “Alia” from Dune. The problem is you would probably be dooming your daughter to a lifetime of mispronunciations.
I want to name a boy Leto (better choice than Muad’Dib) if I ever have one but I do love the name Alia also.
Leto in slovak means summer
Just be aware that in Greek mythology, Leto is a female name, and she was the mother of Apollo and Artemis.
Speaking of Greek mythology, the Dark-Hunter series by Sherrilyn Kenyon has some very interesting names. . .I like Kyrian for a boy and Katra for a girl
My parents actually named me after my father read Dune and realized that he liked the name Jessica.
I named a rabbit Scully
I named my daughter Dayna Gillian (after Dana Scully/Gillian Anderson)
I named my Maine coon cat Scully…she’s red of course. I also have 2 orange tabbies named Milo (after “The Adventures of Milo & Otis”) and Horatio (who really does look like David Caruso). If I ever have a son, his name will be Zander, which I got from “General Hospital”.
I named my cat Scully. The first time I watched the X-files with her on my lap and Mulder called out “Scully!!!” her head popped up and she looked at the TV like “What? I’m right here!” It was pretty cute:)
And I named a fish Alia — I had to take it back to the shop because it because it became quite vicious and was attacking the other fish in the tank (go figure!)
I’ve got a cat named Mulder.
We named a fish Smoking fish after the smoking man on X-files!
I’m definitely going to name my kids Mulder and Scully….I dont care if the are lastnames that’s how my kids are going to be called
i love the name isabella and might name my daughter after the isabella from “an earthly knight” novel. also really like the name rose for a girl, and madeline. for boys i like edward(like edward in narnia) and harry(harry potter)
I think it’s actually Edmund in The Chronicles of Narnia.
Yeah, his name is Edmund. If you name your daughter Isabella and your son Edward, you’ve got a Twilight situation.
Bleh…and if it is a Twilight intentionally, don’t admit it to anyone. Please!
I read somewhere ages ago that some woman named her twins Edward and Bella. Which is seriously creepy since they’re boyfriend/girlfriend in the books. But I do like the name Edward, not because of Twilight, just because. Edmund is good too.