The Name Trend That Isn’t

Duana Taha writes the Duana Names column for the website Lainey Gossip, where this piece first appeared. She last wrote for Nameberry on wishing she and her husband had signed a baby name prenup.

The idea that people are naming their children after Instagram filters.

Let me be clear, I don’t buy this at all. It’s a great headline, but it’s just preposterous. I feel the kind of rage that Millenials must feel when they read yet another disparaging headline about Millenials (PS – according to some scales, I am a Millenial. This confounds me).

Think about the people you know who use Instagram. Smart, image-conscious by definition, social people, right? Do they strike you as the kind of people who would name their children after an Instagram filter, with all the other inspiration in the world? Would they let themselves seem that basic?

Now think of the people who created and work on Instagram. Obviously tuned in, intelligent people who are also social and involved, because they see the benefit of an app like Instagram and they’ve made it addictive. Where do you think those people got the ideas for the names of the filters? You think they made them up from scratch?

Or, did they, perhaps, choose names of people and apply them to the filters, just like people have done to strollers and lipsticks for generations? I knew people named Willow and Sierra and Hudson and Aden before Instagram, and so did you. Even Perpetua is firmly in my memory as Bridget Jones’s insufferable colleague. Sure, there are rarer ones like Juno and Amaro – but Milo and Bruno and Otto and Leo are hugely popular, so seeing Juno and Amaro as next in line isn’t so hard.

I know it’s a great link to tweet, but it’s ridiculous, and if you thought about it, you know it is, too. After all, if people took inspiration from such disparate places, there wouldn’t be so many kids named Ella, full stop.