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…)

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.

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The term ’soap opera name’ has always had a pejorative connotation, suggesting over-the-top, strong, silent Ridge-Thorne-Trent type names. But the truth of the matter is that the scripters of  daytime dramas have actually been a lot more imaginative–and prescient–than those of, say, sitcoms or nighttime dramas.

The classic example–as Abby Sandel mentioned in her guest blog the other day–is Kayla.  When the character of Kayla Brady was introduced on Days of Our Lives in 1982, her name had hardly been heard of–much less used.  But not long after that, Kayla began an unprecedented leap up the lists, and stayed there for well over a decade. 

Soaps also anticipated the trend of using place names for people–there were Egypts and Indias, Sierras and Friscos years before it was a baby-naming trend and they were in the forefront of using last names as firsts.  And there were too many individual names that were ahead of their time: Cameron, Kyle and Kylie, Logan, Hunter, Holden, Colton, Cooper, Roman, Jagger, Harley for a girl…. all of them appeared on the soaps from the 70s to the 90s.

Now, as one of the stalwarts of soap operadom, The Guiding Light, is about to bite the dust after 72 years on radio and TV, this seems like a good moment to celebrate some of the more original sudsy names of the past and present (but sorry, I draw the line at Chardonnay): 

GIRLS

AMBROISIA

CALLIOPE

CHARITY

COLBY

CRICKET

ECHO

EDEN

EPIPHANY

EUGENIA

EVANGELINE

FARREN

GREENLEE

LAKEN

LIBERTY

OLYMPIA

OPAL

PILAR

ROXY

SHILOH

SILVER

SIOBHAN

VIENNA

WILLOW

BOYS

ARISTOTLE

ARTEMIS

BLUE

CABOT

CAGNEY

CANE

CASSIUS

CRUZ

CONSTANTINE

DEACON

DIDIER

ENZO

FORD

FRISCO

GRAY

HART

HAWK

JASPER

JAZZ

KATO

LORENZO

NASH

ORION

RAFE

REMY

REX

RIDGE

RIVER

STORM

THORNE

WHIP (!)

YURI

ZENDE

ZIGGY

ZANE

The names of characters from the television shows that we watched when we were young often stick with us forever, from kiddie shows to teen-oriented programs to favorite sitcoms.  Grover, Oscar, Kermit–those Muppetish images are hard to shake: Oscar seems to have recovered from his Grouchiness, but Kermit might stay green forever.  Ditto the shows we might have been glued to through our school years–especially if they happened to feature a teen idol.

A name from an old TV show might remain with us because we found it especially appealing, or if it was attached to a favorite character, or perhaps if we hadn’t heard the name before, giving it a fresh resonance.  Here’s a list of some examples from the past few decades that fit one or more of those criteria and which might inspire a baby name choice today. (Some of the shows continued running from one decade to the next, but we’ve listed them under the one they started in.)

1970s TELEVISION SHOWS

ALMANZO — Little House on the Prairie

BAILEY  (girl)– WKRP in Cincinnati

BARNABY — Barnaby Jones

BLAIR — The Facts of Life

BO –The Dukes of Hazzard

DAISY —  The Dukes of Hazzard

FLORIDA — Good Times

ISAAC — The Love Boat

JOSIE — Josie & the Pussycats

SABRINA — Charlie’s Angels

TANNER — The Bad News Bears

1980s TELEVISION SHOWS

ADDISON — Moonlighting

ALEXIS — Dynasty

BRUNO — Fame

CHASE — Falcon’s Crest

COCO — Fame

COLT — The Fall Guy

LEONARDO — Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

LILITH — Cheers

LIBERTY — De Grassi, The Last Generation

MADDIE — Moonlighting

MALLORY — Family Ties

MURPHY — Murphy Brown

SUMMER — Baywatch

THEO — The Cosby Show

WINNIE — The Wonder Years

ZAX — Benji, Zax & The Alien Prince

1990s TELEVISION SHOWS

AIDAN — Sex in the City

ANGEL — Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel

AVERY — Murphy Brown

BRIGHT — 7th Heaven

CORDELIA  – Buffy the Vampire Slayer

COSMO — Seinfeld

DAWSON — Dawson’s Creek

FELICITY — Felicity

FOX  —   The X-Files

GENEVA —  Hangin’ with Mr. Cooper

GRIFFIN — Party of Five

JOSIAH — The West Wing

MABEL  — Mad About You

MAYA — Just Shoot Me

MEADOW — The Sopranos

MICHAELA  – Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman

MIRANDA  – Sex in the City

OWEN — Party of Five

PIPER — Charmed

PO — Teletubbies

PRUE  —  Charmed

SIX — Blossom

URSULA — Mad About You

XANDER — Buffy the Vampire Slayer

XENA — XENA: The Warrior Princess

WILLOW —  Buffy the Vampire Slayer

ZOEY — Cybill/Zoey 101

Do you have your own nostalgic favorites? Is there one that you’ve actually used or would consider using for your child? (more…)