Marvel Universe Movie Names: How influential are they?
By Joe Satran
Updated with names from Black Panther on March 5.
At the movie theater, we’re living in the Age of Marvel. It only took Black Panther three weeks to hit $500 million at the U.S. box office — faster than almost any other movie in history. Thor: Ragnarok, the previous entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), opened at the top of the box office with a $122 million U.S. debut, pushing the total of the series past the $13 billion mark. That’s almost as much as Harry Potter and Star Wars combined!
But what about on birth certificates and in pre-schools? We know that plenty of parents are naming their babies after Harry Potter, Star Wars and Game of Thrones characters. Curious to see if the same was true of Marvel, we combed through the SSA most popular baby names data to find out how many babies had been given Marvel character names since the debut of the first MCU movie, Iron Man, in 2008.
A few tricky issues popped up right away. For starters, many Marvel characters, having been invented decades ago, have extremely bland first names. When a baby boy is named Kylo, you can be pretty sure Adam Driver‘s Star Wars character was a factor. It’s much harder to figure out whether any particular baby Steve was inspired by Captain America. Or how many parents avoided naming their daughter Natasha because they hated Black Widow.
Still, it’s clear that the MCU has had an effect on baby naming. Three examples in particular stand out. Loki is up 67% since 2008, while Pepper and Odin have both more than quadrupled since that year. You could also easily make a similar case for Falcon, Clint, Rhodes, Captain and Nebula.
Plus, we may only be in the early stages of this phenomenon. Since Marvel audiences tend to skew young, as they age into becoming parents, they might start calling up their love of the Avengers movies when they consider baby names. And new Marvel productions seem to be appearing almost every month. Since Thor: Ragnarok and Guardians of the Galaxy 2 both came out in 2017, their influence won’t show up until next year, when we won’t be surprised to see a few more Valkyries, Thors and even Gamoras pop up.
Here’s the full list of Marvel character names, ranked from most to least popular in 2016.
Boys
1. Luke
Character: Luke Cake (Mike Coulter) from Luke Cage
Number of babies in 2016: 9930
Change since 2008: Up 6%
2. Everett
Character: Everett Ross (Martin Freeman) from Captain America: Civil War
Number of babies in 2016: 3495
Change since 2008: Up 335%
3. Peter
Characters: Peter Parker (Tom Holland) from Spider-Man: Homecoming, Peter “Star–Lord” Quill (Chris Pratt) from Guardians of the Galaxy
Number of babies in 2016: 1904
Change since 2008: Down 13%
4. Jasper
Character: Jasper Sitwell (Maximiliano Hernandez) from Thor
Number of babies in 2016: 1885
Change since 2008: Up 201%
5. Stephen
Character: Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) from Doctor Strange
Number of babies in 2016: 1367
Change since 2008: Down 35%
6. Erik
Character:Erik Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan) from Black Panther and Erik Selvig (Stellan Skarsgard) from Thor
Number of babies in 2016: 937
Change since 2008: Down 48%
7. Odin
Character: Odin (Anthony Hopkins) from Thor
Number of babies in 2016: 831
Change since 2008: Up 313%
8. Bruce
Character: Bruce Banner (Ed Norton/Mark Ruffalo) from The Incredible Hulk
Number of babies in 2016: 697
Change since 2008: Up 20%
9. Scott
Character: Scott Lane (Paul Rudd) from Ant-Man
Number of babies in 2016: 655
Change since 2008:Down 37%
10. Tony
Character: Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) from Iron Man
Number of babies in 2016: 560
Change since 2008: Down 37%
11. Sam
Character: Sam “Falcon” Wilson (Anthony Mackie) from Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Number of babies in 2016: 474
Change since 2008: Down 22%
12. Steve
Character: Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) from Captain America: The First Avenger
Number of babies in 2016: 205
Change since 2008: Down 51%
13. Nick
Character: Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) from Iron Man 2
Number of babies in 2016: 175
Change since 2008: Down 26%
14. Clint
Character: Clint “Hawkeye” Barton (Jeremy Renner) from Thor
Number of babies in 2016: 123
Change since 2008: Up 23%
15. Loki
Character: Loki (Tom Hiddleston) from Thor
Number of babies in 2016: 92
Change since 2008: Up 67%
16. Thor
Character: Thor (Chris Hemsworth) from Thor
Number of babies in 2016: 87
Change since 2008: Down 16%
17. Rhodes
Character: James “Rhodey” Rhodes (Terrence Howard/Don Cheadle) from Iron Man
Number of babies in 2016: 59
Change since 2008: Up 181%
18. Matt
Character: Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) from Daredevil
Number of babies in 2016: 58
Chance since 2008: Down 29%
19. Pietro
Character: Pietro Maximoff (Aaron Taylor–Johnson) from Avengers: Age of Ultron
Number of babies in 2016: 37
Change since 2008: Up 6%
20. Captain
Character: Captain America, AKA Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) from Captain America
Number of babies in 2016: 31
Change since 2008: Up 182%
21. Rocket
Character: Rocket (Bradley Cooper) from Guardians of the Galaxy
Number of babies in 2016: 23
Change since 2008: Up 28%
22. Falcon
Character: Sam “Falcon” Wilson (Anthony Mackie) from Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Number of babies in 2016: 21
Change since 2008: Up 75%
23. Stark
Character: Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) from Iron Man
Number of babies in 2016: 18
Change since 2008: Not on list in 2008
24. Phil
Character: Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg) from Iron Man
Number of babies in 2016: 15
Change since 2008: Down 35%
25. Hawkeye
Character: Clint “Hawkeye” Barton (Jeremy Renner) from Thor
Number of babies in 2016: 5
Change since 2008: Not on list in 2008
Not on popularity list, because fewer than 5 babies: Bucky, Drax, Groot, Heimdall, Skurge, Strange, T’Challa, Vision, Yondu
Girls
1. Claire
Character: Claire Temple (Rosario Dawson) from Daredevil
Number of babies in 2016: 5190
Change since 2008: Up 30%
2. Maria
Character: Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders) from The Avengers
Number of babies in 2016: 2788
Change since 2008: Down 50%
2. Jessica
Character: Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter) from Jessica Jones
Number of babies in 2016: 1375
Change since 2008: Down 71%
3. Hope
Character: Hope van Dyne (Evangeline Lily) from Ant-Man, Hope Shlottman (Erin Moriarty) from Jessica Jones
Number of babies in 2016: 1324
Change since 2008: Down 14%
4. Jane
Character: Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) from Thor
Number of babies in 2016: 1129
Change since 2008: Up 37%
5. Natasha
Character: Natasha “Black Widow” Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson) from The Avengers
Number of babies in 2016: 387
Change since 2008: Down 50%
6. Sharon
Character: Sharon Carter (Emily VanCamp) from Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Number of babies in 2016: 295
Change since 2008: Down 37%
7. Pepper
Character: Virginia “Pepper” Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) from Iron Man
Number of babies in 2016: 136
Change since 2008: Up 353%
8. May
Character: May Parker (Marissa Tomei) from Spider-Man: Homecoming
Number of babies in 2016: 131
Change since 2008: Up 40%
9. Valkyrie
Character: Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson) from Thor: Ragnarok
Number of babies in 2016: 48
Change since 2008: Up 337%
10. Wanda
Character: Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olson) from Avengers: Age of Ultron
Number of Babies in 2016: 30
Change since 2008: Down 21%
11 (tie). Elektra
Character: Elektra (Elodie Yung) from Daredevil
Number of Babies in 2016: 21
Change since 2008: Down 57%
11 (tie). Nakia
Character: Nakia (Lupita Nyongo) from Black Panther
Number of Babies in 2016: 21
Change since 2008: Down 74%
12. Peggy
Character: Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) from Captain America: The First Avenger
Number of babies in 2016: 19
Change since 2008: Down 30%
13. Nebula
Character: Nebula (Karen Gillan) from Guardians of the Galaxy
Number of babies in 2016: 8
Change since 2008: Not on list in 2008
14. Topaz
Character: Topaz (Rachel House) from Thor: Ragnarok
Number of babies in 2016: 6
Change since 2008: Not on list in 2008
Not on popularity list, because fewer than 5 babies: Gamora, Hela, Frigga, Mantis, Okoye, Shuri