Who do you think topped the list?
Naming children after celebrities isn’t a new concept, in fact it’s been going on for centuries. However, the ability to be able to document the exact numbers via statistical analysis is a relatively new notion.
Enter: Names.org.
Discovering for example that zero babies in the UK were named Rihanna in 2004 – this the year before the Roc Nation singer’s debut album Music of the Sun was released – Names.org have identified that after her third album in 2008, Good Girl Gone Bad, 1,074 babies were named Rihanna.
So evidently there’s being a fan and then there’s being a fanatic.
Over the years there has been a surge in UK babies being named after musical artists in particular, especially at the height of their popularity. The uniqueness of their name, or their stage name, makes it so easy to identify the artist a baby was named after.
Other names on the list include:
Whitney (Houston)
1977: The year her career began, 693 babies were named Whitney.
2008: The year after her self-titled debut album, 9,533 babies were named Whitney.
Mariah (Carey)
1988: The year her career began, 424 babies were named Mariah.
1991: Just three years later, after her self-titled debut album, 5,191 babies were named Mariah.
Miley (Cyrus)
2003: The year her career began, 27 babies were named Miley.
2008: Her popularity resulted in 2,649 babies being named Miley.
Zayn (Malik) – One Direction
2010: The year his career began, 46 babies were named Zayn.
2016: The year of his debut solo album, Mind of Mine, 741 babies were named Zayn.
Are you named after a musician? Is your child? See the full list of musicians whose name inspired parents to name their child after them below.
For a full list with a breakdown of the artist and their bio, click here.
