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'Game of Thrones' and 'Hunger Games' names seem popular for babies

According to the website Nameberry, names like Khaleesi from 'Game of Thrones' and Katniss from 'Hunger Games' are getting lots of page views.

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Murray Close/Lionsgate/AP
'The Hunger Games' stars Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss, a name which baby name website Nameberry says has received a lot of traffic so far this year.
  • By Molly Driscoll Staff Writer

According to baby name website Nameberry, literary works continue to influence the monikers parents bestow (or at least consider bestowing) on their new children.

The site often releases a list halfway through the year predicting what the top names of the entire year will be. Nameberry bases its rankings on the number of page views a page for a name receives. That doesn't necessarily mean that parents will actually give their child the name in question, but rather that they might be thinking about it (as opposed to our recent article on how many parents are naming their daughters Khaleesi from “Game of Thrones,” based on Social Security Administration data). 

Khaleesi is one of the names that Nameberry says has risen in popularity. On its list of most popular names on their site, Khaleesi – the title given to “Thrones” character Daenerys Targaryen after she marries Khal Drogo, leader of a nomadic tribe of horseback riders – is now at number 18.

Other book-based names that are popular right now? While it’s not as distinctive as Khaleesi, Nameberry notes that Hazel, which occupies the 13th slot, is the first name of the main character in John Green’s popular young adult novel “The Fault in Our Stars.” Meanwhile, Katniss, the first name of the protagonist of the popular “Hunger Games” trilogy by Suzanne Collins, is at number 14. Elsa, the name of the queen gifted with power over ice and snow in Disney’s animated hit “Frozen,” currently occupies number 88. (In the original story “The Snow Queen” by Hans Christian Andersen, on which “Frozen” is loosely based, the character is known only as “the Snow Queen.”)

And then of course, there are some perennially popular literary names. Scarlett, for instance, the name of the main character in Margaret Mitchell’s novel “Gone with the Wind,” is currently at number 29. As for boys, Atticus, the first name of protagonist Scout’s attorney father in “To Kill A Mockingbird,” is at number three.

Check out the full list of most-viewed names here.

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