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I love Caspian. I wish I could use it.

I can agree that it's partly Narnia fans having children, but I also think there's a Cas/Kas- trend-- Cassian had an enormous off chart rise last year [19 boys named Cassian born in 2016, 128 in 2017] and will almost certainly chart in 2018. Cassius and Kashton (and Cashton, off chart) also had big rises.

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[Even Cassidy for a boy went up a little].

This message was edited 6/29/2018, 7:02 AM

double post

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ooops

This message was edited 6/29/2018, 7:03 AM

I agree that the Narnia fans are becoming of child bearing age. I recently started to love Caspian and my connection to Narnia is surely a great deal of that. I also love the sound. In addition, I think of the Caspian Sea...I love geography and "water" names. I'm currently on a kick that the meaning of a name is important, and although this name doesn't have much to go on, personally it speaks to me.

'Names from books/films/tv' is a trend; young teens who saw the film are ten years older and naming babies now; the character is a prince in a very English book/film series so there's a vague 'aristocratic British' association there, and the -ian ending matches various other perceived-to-be-posh names that are popular, like Sebastian. And maybe some people like the sea association, although that's probably a lot weaker than all the other reasons.

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I dislike it. It's a media-inspired fad name with no name-history or layers to it (it wasn't used as a name before the book), and the sound doesn't appeal to me.

I have no idea why it's rising. I've liked it since I first read Prince Caspian (but I'm not aware of a more recent character with that name).

I’m not so sure Caspian’s really rocketed in popularity so much as slowly gathered steam. That’s definitely the case where I live (Caspian entered the England/Wales top 1000 a few years ago to my dismay) and I know it’s quite popular in Sweden. I’m obviously very biased since he’s my favourite ever name, but I really think he doesn’t have any discernible or problematic downsides, apart from being unusual. I think parents are getting more adventurous in their name choices, and Caspian’s always been in the periphery. My biggest fear has always been that Caspian very occasionally gets used, and as parents have been more out there with their choices, Caspian not only catches their attention, but becomes a serious contender. He does fit very well in with the ‘hipster’ name trend too.

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Of course I absolutely adore Caspian and everything about him. He embodies the type of boys names I love, adventurous and boyish, playful, energetic, soft, but strong without being harsh or brutish. There’s a good deal of magic and whimsy too, thanks to the Narnia connection, not to mention a plethora of nn options and a nature link. Pretty much the only downside I see is growing popularity. With him being in the top 1000, I can imagine more people feeling comfortable using Caspian as an unusual but familiar choice (like Atticus once was). I’m still holding out on him dropping off again by the time I come to having kids, but I doubt it.

It's been a decade since the Narnia: Prince Caspian movie came out. People who were kids/preteens/teenagers then (heard the name and liked it), are now the age group having kids. Also Cassian was in a Star Wars movie and (probably this is just a coincidence but) Muhummad Ali (Cassius) died semi-recently.