The minute I saw that the leading character in the new sitcom Life Unexpected was a young girl named Lux, a bell went off.  Does this mean that there will be a slew of baby Luxes (Luxi?)?  Will Lux be the new Lexi?  Or won’t it have any effect at all in this era of diminished network TV viewing?

We certainly know that some TV characters’ names of the past have had an impact, from Samantha on Bewitched to Alexis on Dynasty to Brandon and Dylan on the old Beverly Hill 90210 to Xander on Buffy the Vampire Slayer to Aidan on Sex and the City right up to the female Addison on Grey’s Anatomy.

So what about the current line-up?  Though some of these are not strictly speaking new names, here are the somewhat out of the mainstream character names of current (and a few about to launch) shows.  Think any of them will make an impression on baby namers?

GIRLS

ADALEEN—Big Love

ADRIANNA, nn ADE—90210

AMITA—NUMB3RS

ARIZONA—Grey’s Anatomy

BREE- Desperate Housewives

BRITTA—Community

CERIE—30 Rock

DOROTA—The Gossip Girls

FIA—Miami Medical (upcoming)

FRANKIE—The Middle

JULES—Cougar Town

JULIET—Lost

HENRIETTA/”HETTY”—NCIS: Los Angeles

KALINDA—The Good Wife

KENSI—NCIS: Los Angeles

LUX—Life Unexpected

MARGENE—Big Love

MARISOL—Miami Medical (upcoming)

MERCEDES—Glee

NAEVIA—Sparticus: Blood & Sand

NICOLETTE—Big Love

RILEY—Melrose Place

SILVER (her last name used as first) 90210

SLOAN–Entourage

SURA—Spartacus: Blood & Sand

TANCY—Big Love

WILHELMINA—Ugly Betty

ZOEY–Nurse Jackie

BOYS

ANDO—Heroes

ARI–Entourage

ARLO—24

ASHUR—Spartacus: Blood & Sand

AXL—The Middle

BAZE, nn for Nate Bazile—Life Unexpected

BOONE—Lost

CASTIEL—Supernatural

CREED—The Office (the real first name of the actor who plays him)

CROSBY—Parenthood

DANOI—Treme—upcoming

DEXTER–Dexter

DIXON–90210

FINN—Glee

FITCH—Nurse Jackie

FRITZ—The Closer

GREYSON—Cougar Town

HIRO—Heroes

HUGO/”HURLEY”—Lost

IGNACIO—Ugly Betty

KIMBALL-The Mentalist

MILES—Lost

ORSON—Desperate Housewives

PIERCE—Community

ROWDY—The Deep End

RUFUS—Gossip Girls

THATCHER—Grey’s Anatomy

THOR—Nurse Jackie

ZEEK—Parenthood

When The Golden Girls hit the small screen in 1985, the names of its leading ladies—Rose, Dorothy and Blanche—were late middle aged, and Mama Sophia was old enough to have already been in and out of  the Shady Pines Nursing Home.  That was 25 years ago, a period of major change in the name world.  Sophia is now the seventh most popular baby name (and #1 in some places), Rose is America’s favorite middle name, and Dorothy is one of the belles of the nameberry name boards.

Not only that: other Golden Girl names, names that were virtually written off just a couple of years ago, are back in play.  Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick, for example, named one of their twin daughters Marion, Julia Roberts chose Hazel for hers and Molly Ringwald picked Adele.  And nameberryites are cool with similar period names like Clara and Cora, Vivian and Vera.

Here are some other alternative names that might have been used for the Golden Girls ladies—are any of them ready to join Rose and Sophia?

ALMA

BETTY

CEIL

DELLA

DORIS

EDITH (more…)

You don’t have to be a cat fancier to appreciate a name with a sleek feline feel.  These cool cat names range from cute kitten names to powerful panthers and tigers, and can be looked at from several points of view: names with cat-related meanings (starring the extended Leo family), cats in books, movies, television—real and animated–and cats named by well-known humans.

First of all, the most obvious:

CALICO

CAT, KAT

KITTY

PUMA

TIGER

Then there are:

NAMES WITH FELINE MEANINGS

ARI, ARIEL, ARIELLA

FALINE

LAVI

LEANDER, LEANDRO (more…)

Once in a while some pop culture phenomenon comes along that doesn’t just reflect the name gestalt of its day, but actually influences it. This was the case with the glossy nighttime soaps of the late 70s and early 80s–most particularly Dynasty—which were all about wealth and greed, ambition, melodrama, campy catfights –and humungous shoulder pads.

The writers on these shows were quite ingenious in the way they came up with names that reflected perfectly those values and vices. Male names that were short, sleek, and powerful. Sophisticated, boyish women’s names like Arliss that were a complete reversal of  the previous decades’ unisex nicknamish names like Jodie and Jamie. Elegant surname names such as Blake Carrington.

Probably the most influential was the name of Blake’s ex-wife, that evil viper, Alexis. Despite the character’s villainy, her name took off, and was instrumental in the success of other Alexi: Alexandra, Alexa, Alex et al. In the year before Dynasty debuted in 1982, there were scarcely 1500 girls given that name across the country; by 1999, it had reached #3 on the list, with the birth of 19,000 baby Alexises.

(more…)