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
AMITA—NUMB3RS
BREE– Desperate Housewives
BRITTA—Community
CERIE—30 Rock
DOROTA—The Gossip Girls
FRANKIE—The Middle
JULIET—Lost
HENRIETTA/”HETTY”—NCIS: Los Angeles
KALINDA—The Good Wife
KENSI—NCIS: Los Angeles
LUX—Life Unexpected
MARISOL—Miami Medical (upcoming)
MERCEDES—Glee
NAEVIA—Sparticus: Blood & Sand
RILEY—Melrose Place
SILVER (her last name used as first) 90210
SLOAN—Entourage
SURA—Spartacus: Blood & Sand
WILHELMINA—Ugly Betty
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
DIXON—90210
FINN—Glee
FITCH—Nurse Jackie
FRITZ—The Closer
HIRO—Heroes
KIMBALL–The Mentalist
MILES—Lost
ORSON—Desperate Housewives
PIERCE—Community
ROWDY—The Deep End
RUFUS—Gossip Girls
ZEEK—Parenthood
Linda Rosenkrantz
Linda Rosenkrantz is the co-founder of Nameberry, and co-author with Pamela Redmond of the ten baby naming books acknowledged to have revolutionized American baby naming. You can follow her personally at Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. She is also the author of the highly acclaimed New York Review Books Classics novel Talk and a number of other books.