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I gave two presentations on the topic of the effects of popular culture on American given names at the American Name Society meeting a couple of weeks ago. This dealt not only with movies but with television, popular music, athletes, and other factors.

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The short answer to "which movies are most influential" is "those which have characters whose names fit in with the 'different but not too different' sort of names young parents are looking for." A film character cannot cause a big jump in a name which was very common in the generation of young parents or their own parents. Such names are not "new" to them. So a film tomorrow that had lead characters named Michael and Jessica would not have any big effect on the number of Michaels and Jessicas being born. But a film which introduces a name to a wide public which fits in with fashionable sounds and seems "new" can have a major impact. Ayla, for example, boomed in popularity because of the 1986 film Clan of the Cave Bear, and Tristan soared in use in the USA after 1994 because of the character Brad Pitt played in Legends of the Fall.

This message was edited 1/19/2007, 11:57 AM