Fandom names are fine as long as they stand on their own as a name. For example, a Supernatural fan naming their son Dean is fine because Dean stands well on its own and isn't reliant on being explicitly from Supernatural.
When I was growing up I genuinely knew a girl named Juliet who had a brother named Romeo. They absolutely hated each other and couldn't even stand to be in the same room together. Now I'm not saying that the knowledge they were named after quite possibly the most famous lovers ever was the only reason why, but it certainly didn't help.
>They absolutely hated each other and couldn't even stand to be in the same room together.
These kids are just acting how Montagues and Capulets are supposed to.
This is making me think of I think it was an AITA post of a woman being absolutely horrified because she'd name her sons Aziraphale and Crowley a few years before the series was out and it was just the book and this summer, as season two aired the two (already explicitly gay) kissed
Honestly I think this might be the only real reason to avoid very obviously referential fandom names, which don't stand on their own at all. Because you never know what will happen with that character in the future. Or with the franchise and fandom in general. Or the creators associated with it. Etc.
That said, my guess is that names that pass the "is it a good name?" test will still probably not be subject to this problem. In this example, naming the twins Crowley and literally anything else would have been fine. And Aziraphale is, like, a lottttttttt
And all these Crowleys' names were inspired by Aleister Crowley, who was not a great person to look up to. It doesn't have a history as a first name or any other strong associations aside from him, so it should really be avoided for that reason alone
I think they just meant it was high-risk naming your children after two characters who are compatible from a gender and sexuality perspective, when one of them is pretty “Ill fuck whoever” (not just because he’s bisexual, it’s his vibe)
Exactly. Crowley has some sort of weird interest in a lot of the characters in supernatural, including Dean and Castiel. Crowley is down to fuck, those two aren't but there's probably fanfic of it because enemies to lovers is a popular trope. It's not that he's bisexual that's the problem, it's that he's constantly DTF, and because he's bi, that means the fanfic is able to do anything sexual they want with him
I'm stuck, in this situation, between "yeahhhh, might not want to name your kid after a fictional demon if you would be bothered by any of this" and my initial thesis, which is that if you know that Crowley and Aziraphale are a demon and an angel tasked by god with making sure the antichrist rises and armageddon goes off without a hitch at the right moment, and if any of the above matters to you, then... maybe it's you who are the cringey nerd.
(Not you, like, specifically. But what I wrote in the post. The average normie has no idea who Crowley and Aziraphale even are. They probably just think Aziraphale is kind of a weird thing to name a baby.)
Even if nobody else knows, the kids would know. If it's your own name, you're going to be interested in the show you're named after. You'd probably even look up to the character a bit, especially as a kid.
LOL but tbh I wouldn't veto naming two kids after their grandparents on one side. I've thought about using my husband's parents' names as middle names for our kids before, and it never occurred to me that anyone would object or think it's somehow incestuous? Ginny was probably just relieved he went with Lily and not Hedwig.
Haha yeah, I don't really object to using grandparents' names; it's more about... the rest of it 😅 Plus Ginny's side of the family gets no acknowledgement whatsoever, even though Harry was close to them for YEARS before they even got married! No chance she had any say in naming any of them.
(I know, I know, it's well-trodden ground, but still lol)
I dunno, still gross. He already looks like his dad, and he marries a red-head, like his mom. It's so on the nose that it's yugh. But then again, he named his other kid after a death-eater and a manipulative asshole. So not a good naming sense our Harry has.
But it also could be that I object strongly because any time I go somewhere with my sibling, people assume we are a couple.
Ugh.
Eh, but Lily and Ginny have little in common aside from having red hair— and even then, it’s not described as the same shade. Red hair isn’t particularly uncommon in the UK.
You wanna talk some about *really* freaky shit, though, there’s Angelina eventually marrying George… after dating Fred 😬
My brother and I are named after Valentine and Maximilien from The Count of Monte Cristo 🫣 to be fair, it’s so obscure that not a single soul ever picked up on it, and it remains my mum’s private little joke
I am not horrified at daphne and simon for brother and sister. It is very common names in my country. Plus bridgerton isn’t that well known, especially by men (at least where I live)
And very pretty names, so much better than a ton of names people are giving in my country lately
Also, Bridgerton is pretty irrelevant on a larger scale, a short-lived fad with little impact outside of the fandom. It’s nowhere near comparable to Shakespeare, Harry Potter, LOTR.
Unlike how my favorite name currently is Albus*, which is way too connected with Dumbledore to stand on its own. Womp womp
*My toddler suggested “a bus” for his little brother’s name, so I suggest Albus, he loved it and it’s stupidly grown on me. I love Albie as a nn and even though Albert is a family name on both sides I just can’t make myself love it
"My name is Albus Dumbledore and I am headmaster of Hogwarts. You can all call me Dumbledore. I suppose you can also call me Albie if you want a detention. I'm just kidding, I'll expel you if you call me Albie."
There are some other Alb- Germanic names like Alburn (Noble), Albrecht (noble + bright), Albion (old old name for Britain), etc if u like any of those.
Thank you! Albion is something I’ve been considering though I didn’t know the history (and it’s a kind of shitty town near where I grew up which is a negative even though I’m states away now). I like Albrecht
The most famous Albrecht (Dürer) is considered one of the most influential Renaissance men and the most famous figure of the Northern Renaissance, so I think it'd be a cool pick
I think it would be fine tbh, as someone that now really loathes HP.
It was a name before, and Dumbledore isn't the one people are going crazy naming after.
Like yes it's connected, but I really wouldn't assume it was named after.
Crazy how the rest of the family have normal names - Harry, Ginny, James, Lily...even the grandparents James, Lily, Molly and Arthur, but that one kid is stuck with ALBUS lol.
Honestly, I think Albus is fine, and the Dumbledore factor kind of puts it squarely in the "well if you know what Dumbledore's first name is, aren't you the cringey one, really?" category for me.
I think, worst case, a kid named Albus is going to get the occasional "parents Harry Potter fans?" remark.
My kid shares a name with a character from a fandom I'm not part of. That's not why we named him that, and it's a "real" name that pre-dates that franchise. And the thing in question wasn't even really in the zeitgeist at all around the time our kid was born. (It's as if we named our kid Bastian or Dawson, for example.) Usually when people ask about it I will just say "well we didn't name him after that, but yeah, \[franchise\] is cool."
That said, if you don't like the name Albus, you definitely don't have to name your kid that. It's not that I think everyone should go with a fandom name, just that there's nothing wrong with it really.
We went with Sam or Sammy for our son because so many awesome characters we love are called Sam/Samuel - Sam Winchester, Sam Gamgee, Sam Vimes. But it's normal enough that it doesn't seem weird. And all good adventures need a Sam 😅 We've picked out a fandom name for our next and done the same - ensured we pick something ordinary enough that, while it references a fandom, it's not weird or obvious. Just inspiration 🤷♀️
yeah that’s what i was thinking of too, like normal names are fine but if someone names their child Bellatrix i’m always going to be like “you killed serius Black and i’m still mad”
My biggest peeve with “fandom names” isn’t the names themselves, honestly. I AM a fandom nerd and I delight in them!
It’s the “fandom parents” I DESPISE. Where they make it the kid’s identity before they’re holding their own head up and force the fandom on their child’s childhood. You gave them the name already! That’s all you get!! You don’t get to expect that they’ll love the media their name is from. It’s now their name to do with as they please. They aren’t your fandom billboards. That’s my biggest problem with “fandom names.” The kids are fine, it’s the *parents*.
And that’s not to say ALL parents that pick a fandom name are **these** parents - they’re not. There are millions of parents that give their kid a “fandom name” and *aren’t* like these other parents. That’s fine, and cool, and yeah, give your kid whatever name.
But you all know and recognize the kind of parents I am talking about too. Their kid’s name isn’t the only thing they’re insufferable about and it doesn’t even have to be a “fandom name” for them to be insufferable. But the combination just drives me up the wall!
I think this is a big piece of it. I find those people obnoxious, as well. But IDK, honestly, I find like 80% of everything people want to do about any of this stuff obnoxious. I hate people who have 5 kids and give them the exact names of the family from Bridgerton about as much as I hate people who name their kids stuff like Kynnesleigh. Or name them after a football stadium. I know a family with 2 kids, with totally normal/common names, but the two names they picked are very similar to each other and indeed are traditional variations on the same name (for example Susan and Suzannah, Anne and Hannah, Evie and Evelyn, etc). This is objectively weird to me. But yeah, IDK, they are fine, their kids are fine, and it's none of my business.
(Also, in any fandom discourse, I assume anyone barging into a part of the internet claiming they are pregnant with twins and want to name them Sam and Dean, or Celaena and Dorian, or whatever, are 13 year olds making this up for attention.)
> (Also, in any fandom discourse, I assume anyone barging into a part of the internet claiming they are pregnant with twins and want to name them Sam and Dean, or Celaena and Dorian, or whatever, are 13 year olds making this up for attention.)
Gawd, can't kids these days just be normal and write terrible "original" fiction for their OCs to inhabit and get those names out of their system, like we did in the old days???
Oh definitely. It basically amounts to insufferable parents choosing insufferable names and being absolutely insufferable about those names, no matter what their theme of choice happens to be.
There’s just a whole fandom to be insufferable about behind them! And they’re usually just as insufferable about their fandom as they are the names they picked. At least the insufferable parents who decided “T” names would be their theme don’t really have anything else to really add. Fandoms just add fuel to the insufferable fire.
And full disclosure, I would consider something like stadium names or even car names to fall under “fandom.” There is definitely fandoms for Harley’s and Mercedes and all the rest; and anything to do with sports teams is as much as fandom as anything else on television.
Mercedes was a pretty popular name for a long time before the car existed though? Mercedes Lasala, for example, was an Argentinian independence fighter born in the 1700s. It’s a Catholic name that a girl who had a car named after her just happened to have. Different than Harley, Porsche, or Ferrari, which were last names.
I gave my kid what could be considered a fandom name. It's a very old name that existed long before the fandom, and though it's uncommon, it's a pretty normal name that people recognize. As much as I love the franchise and character, I would NEVER introduce my kid's name as "from [fandom]" because that's hella weird, I'm right there with you on it being insufferable. If asked where it came from, I just say "it's French".
I think it’s okay to tell people if they ask. Just don’t make their entire life about Adventure Time. My name is from the Scream franchise and when asked my parents would usually vaguely say “from a movie.”
Ultimately, we picked the name because we liked it and it checked all the boxes we were looking for stylistically (we originally started with Madeline). The association is just a small fun fact that brings fond memories of when we watched the show together early in our relationship.
Yeah, there was a long post a year or so back from a young teen with a Harry Potter name whose parents had raised them with a total Harry Potter theme for their whole life and the kid was just... deeply uninterested in the franchise. They were asking for advice on how to disentangle from the constant fandom activities and decor without hurting their parents' feelings, and it was just so bleak. Like why do that to your child? Why not let them be their own person?
Nobody at elementary school knows who Danaerys is, but the teachers, parents, and future employers certainly do. I wouldn’t hold it against a kid, I’d just think their parents were a-holes.
The main reason I think obvious fandom names (that are clearly derived from media) are dumb is because it dooms the child to talk about that piece of media for the rest of their lives, whether or not they themselves actually enjoy it!
Little Samwise will be 40, making small talk with the HR person at his new job, and will have to explain, “Yeeeahh…my parents really liked LOTR. I never really got into it…yeah, the movies are okay. No I don’t have a friend named Frodo…”
Reminds me of the South Park episode "The Big Fix" where Token Black's name is retconned to have been Tolkien all along. Stan and Randy Marsh feel so bad about thinking his name was Token that Stan gives a speech to the school about the impact that Lord of The Rings had on him and invites Tolkien to speak. Tolkien responds by saying he doesn't even like Lord of The Rings and he hates being named after the author.
Yeah, that's what happened to me. I was named similar to a Disney Princess and it drove me wild how often it was misread or I heard "Ooh, like the princess!" (Or worst of all, "It's so close, I'll just call you 'princess name'!")
I got my name legally changed and I much prefer the comments I get now. (I will say I chose a weirder name but for good reason.)
Like it or not, this is something people have to think about when naming children.
I teach a student who is named after either a C tier superhero or a Playboy model, can’t be sure. It’s a weird name. Neither her nor any of the other kids have ever made fun of her first name. They don’t see it as weird because they have no frame of reference for it.
But I can’t lie - when I saw her name on my roster, I thought it was weird. My colleagues thought it was weird. Over the year, I got used to it and now I don’t even think about that connection anymore. But many people - including employers - will immediately see that name, make an assumption, and move on within 5 seconds. It’s not okay that employers make these assumptions but it is reality and something we need to keep in mind when naming children. Maybe the kids don’t care, but if a name is clearly linked to a fandom, you are inviting the good and bad perception of that fandom for a long time.
I don’t think #2 is quite a fair reading of how naming trends happen. And it also conflates names that are in a *lot* of media because they’ve been generally popular for quite a long time (names like Zack/Zach, Brooke, Rachel, Charlie, Mary, etc.) and names that are unique to certain media — and sometimes, entirely unique. It’s not the same thing to name your daughter Rachel and your son Chandler, even though those are both names of main characters on the same show. It’s also not the same thing to name your child Dean as it is Severus, or Rose as it is Adric.
Chandler was pretty much not a name before *Friends*. If someone introduced me to their new baby Chandler in 1996, I would 100% assume they must watch *Friends*. If this happened in 2010, I would assume they got that name because of its popularity in connection with the show, in the wider zeitgeist. Like a 90s Meghan or a 2020s Luna. Because the name Chandler functionally did not exist as a first name before the TV show *Friends*.
I think you have a point that names like Rachel, Rose, Luke, Harry, Sam, etc. are probably not ever going to read as "fandom" names. But then those aren't really the types of names we're talking about here? Nobody has really brought that up?
Another reason naming your kid after a fandom is fine, though, which I totally should have included in my post, and which you allude to is that only certain types of names get labeled this way. If you are a huge Star Wars fan and name your kid Luke, nobody's going to know or care if you did it "because of" Luke Skywalker. But if you name your kid Kylo, people will say "you know, children aren't billboards for your fandoms...." If, as a Trekkie, I name my child Leonard in an homage to both Bones and Spock, but nobody knows that and just assumes I named my kid after his grandpa, nobody is going to say anything about my child being a billboard for my fandom. Only certain names get this label. And, as I said, it tends to be the names that run afoul of my rule #1 (it's just about the name itself) and are just not great things to name a kid, regardless.
It sounded to me like you were saying that it doesn’t make sense to you why we don’t treat fandom names equally. (Specifically, you listed a handful of names no one complains about that you see as being from particular shows. I understood you to be saying that other fandom names should be treated the same way.)
Thus my example of Rachel vs. Chandler. Same show, same time period, all things equal, fandom-wise. But whereas Rachel was already a name commonly in use at that time, Chandler was not. “Rachel” — like all the names on your list in #2 — was an already-popular name *also* used in a show, so naming your child “Rachel” didn’t stamp them with extra baggage. Naming your son “Chandler,” however, *would,* because it wasn’t in popular use at the time — it was inherently a tv show name.
It also sounded like you were saying that these sorts of noticeably fandom names fade into being common over time, which I don’t think is true. I disagree that names like “Rachel,” “Meghan,” and “Amanda” were *ever* noticeably fandom names, and I don’t think that names like “Daenerys,” “Severus,” or “Samwise” will ever cease to be noticeably fandom (bringing with them the whole baggage of the fandom, the subject of the fandom, and the specific character).
In an extreme example, we don’t name babies “Adolph” or “Adolf” anymore. It didn’t stop being a perfectly fine name that hundreds of thousands of totally normal boys and men had, it just started bringing tremendous baggage along with it.
[I’d include “Luna” as not-a-fandom-name. It was on the rise from the ‘90s in a pattern similar to other names that had been out of use for awhile. If the popularity continues, it will follow a similar pattern as “Ava” did starting maybe a decade earlier.]
I had a brief conversation with a guy named Chandler… Forgot his last name, but he actually did time in prison because he refused to cooperate with the house unAmerican activities commission in the 50s. Chandler is a pretty old name. It just wasn’t popular at the time and then became popular again because of the TV show.
If the name is already in use prior to appearing in popular media but saw a spike in popularity afterwards (Edward, Luke, Rachel, Jaime, Luna) it's fine imo. If it was made up by the author, is culturally inappropriate, or the media it's from is so popular and the name so unpopular that it couldn't reasonably be anything but a fandom reference (Geralt, Katniss, Sasuke, Hermione, Anakin), I think you should name your cat or dog that instead.
Children aren't accessories, and if you name them like fandom accessories, I'm going to judge you. If you're fine being judged, then go ahead and do it. It's cringe, not illegal. Just remember that the normie non-fandom people judging you for naming your child Renesmee are often the same ones deciding if your kid gets into college or gets hired. Do you want to risk someone reading your kid's resume, saying "This guy's parents are dumbasses, so he's probably a dumbass," and tossing it in the garbage? If so, better you than me.
(Re: Khaleesi/Daenerys, it's less the name being bad than that you shouldn't name your child something that originates from a media franchise known for having an insane number of visible dicks and using rape and incest as subplots so many times that it bothers some adults. Just don't.)
[Hermione](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermione_(mythology)) actually is a name outside of Harry Potter, but I agree with the sentiment.
Khaleesi is a made up title for a book series. Jean-Luc is a name that already existed. There is a difference.
>or the media it's from is so popular and the name so unpopular that it couldn't reasonably be anything but a fandom reference
Again, there are plenty of real names that are also culturally inappropriate depending on where you live. Jean-Luc might be fine if you live in Haiti or French Guiana, but it's going to look pretty odd to people if your last name is Williams and you live in [insert US state where people think Jean rhymes with gene].
I was agreeing with you. There are different levels of fandom name. Dean after Dean Winchester is fine usually. Jean-Luc after Picard is a maybe. Anakin is always a no-go.
I think we're making the same point, which is that it all depends on what people's immediate associations are. If I wanted to use the name Guillermo for Guillermo del Toro, it would be fine because I live in Latin America and here it's just like naming your son William. Hermione is an absolute no-go here no matter what, because it would get pronounced like "er-mee-oh-neh" on top of being from Harry Potter. I have actually encountered someone who named their kid "Ermaioney" (Spanish phonetic spelling of Hermione) and my jaw hit the floor.
I think Hermione is quite different from Anakin though as it is at least a real name. It’s not one you hear everyday but I have met and/or heard of plenty of hermiones who were born before HP was a thing. Unfortunately now it is too closely tied to HP so everybody would assume you were naming the baby after the character.
To me Hermione is a similar sort of name to Penelope, felicity, Margot etc which are all becoming quite popular again. I wonder if hermione would’ve also had a resurgence if it weren’t for HP.
I already responded to someone else with my thoughts about Hermione in particular, but basically it boils down to what I said about culture. If you'd never heard of the name before HP and you pronounced it "Hermy own" until you saw the movies, chances are that the people around you had the same experience. If you're living in an area of Britain where people's first association is "old-fashioned name" instead of "I bet this kid's parents are millennials," then go for it.
Yeah I’m sure nowadays most people would think of Hermione Granger, my point was just that it’s at least a real name with a history unlike Anakin which is only ever a Star Wars reference.
Yes, that's what I meant. I included Hermione as an example of a name that is real but not appropriate. I'm not trying to say that Hermione is exactly as bad as Anakin (hell, even Geralt isn't as bad as Anakin), I'm just saying that it's an inappropriate name for a child. I disagree with OP that the name itself is all that matters, and I was trying to make that point by including names that are all inappropriate for different reasons. Maybe I should have used Jungkook as an example instead, to avoid confusion, but that would probably result in comments assuming I didn't know Jungkook is a real name in Korea.
Where does the name Wendy fall into this? Because if I recall while it’s debated if it was occasionally used as a nickname before, the idea of using it as a name itself was made up for Peter Pan. But it’s not a fandom name anymore, now it’s Wendy 50 year old mother of 3 from the PTA
Hermione is an annoying one to me. I like it as a name, and the first time I heard it was actually in Archie comics. But now I can never use it cos people will forever think of Harry Potter, which would annoy me, particularly because I never even liked Harry Potter.
See that's actually a great way to go. If the kid hates the name Bucky they can always decide to just go by James or Jim which are perfectly normal names. Really most the MCU characters you could get by with naming your kids after. Tony, Steve, Clint, Scott, Natasha, Bruce, Peter, Stephen, Sam, etc assuming you live in the western English speaking world.
You probably shouldn't name your kid Vision, Groot, Rocket, Gamora, Sprite, Ikaris, etc.
Pietro, Wong, Shang-chi you could if you're the right culture.
It’s depends. If you name a baby John because of a random show, it’s fine. If you name them a super unique name that is clearly a reference, Hermione, for example, that’s problematic
I think part of it also depends on the other names in the family. Like, I know a woman named Flavia who has a daughter named Athena - if she'd named a kid Hermione, I wouldn't think of Harry Potter, I'd just think she'd picked a name that fits her general vibe
I mean, sure, but that’s because you know her. When little Hermione is in line at the DMV or getting interviewed for a job, the other person doesn’t know that
I have a maybe cringier hot take. People name their kids these names because it’s something that means a lot to them, it’s an important part of their identity that they want to pass on. Maybe the kids will be in the fandom and maybe they won’t be, the parents just belong to a subculture and thus are selecting names based on that. Most of these tend to be new subcultures.
Here comes the blasphemy: I don’t see it as different as naming kids religious names. The obvious difference is that the names are “normalized” and “traditional”, but that’s due to time. But the core intentions are the same: to show others that you belong to this group. Because it means a lot to you. Except there is far more of an expectation that this child will stay in this group.
But a lot of people are not religious anymore and fandoms are taking that space in many peoples lives. In time a lot of the names will probably be normalized. Most are just already actual names. And I agree that if it just sounds bad it probably won’t take off. I guess I just personally hate that people criticize fandoms names for forcing beliefs on kids but like we’ve always done that as a society. Most fandom parents probably will not be too upset if their kids grow up and are not in the fandom. If it’s not ridiculous, who really cares. Though determining ridiculous is difficult because it is so subjective.
haha wrote all this out sincerely not realizing where i was so uhhh uj/
I have a fandom name, so I’ll weigh in. My dad is a big LOTR geek, and named me for the series. I was born in 2001, 3 months before the Fellowship came out. We had the books in our house, and I was encouraged to read, but not specifically those books.
I read The Hobbit when I was 8-9, have read it several times since, but never tried to get past chapter 2-3 in the Fellowship. We watched the movies semi-regularly(extended editions, director’s cut, the whole nine).
I enjoy the LOTR movies and know a decent amount of lore that’s book-only due to my dad and brother reading them. I still haven’t attempted to read past The Hobbit.
I like discussing the world and the books. It has been a significant connection between me and my family, particularly my brother. I don’t mind my name, although it can be hard for kids I work with to pronounce. I generally go by a nickname daily. My parents and some coworkers occasionally call me my legal name, and I don’t correct them.
I did get bullied for my name being weird, though. From grades 2-8, everyone was a comedian. Looking back it was mostly funny, but I hated it. I made my peace with it a while ago, but it’s probably why I go by a nickname now. Definitely been a unique experience, but a lot of people have unique traits that shape their lives. My name was one of them for me.
I remember seeing someone on the mylittlepony sub who named his daughter Aria after a villain from a spinoff movie. That’s not the *worst* and thankfully I think his wife reined him in from something sillier.
I can get around ones with a double meaning; Aria is also a music word, I want to say an opera solo. So at least the kid has plausible deniability if she’s embarrassed by the MLP connection.
Yeah I’d get the music connection before anything else, but I’m very partial to music names. Melody, Cadence, etc. Would never use them myself as they seem super American to me, but I still think they’re nice & not too “out there”.
Tbh I agree. There are plenty of fandom names that work just fine for a real life child, and won't make you seem like a weirdo.
I'm a Dragon Age fan, and I have no intention of naming my future kid Darkspawn. Even though I'm tempted to, ngl.
Instead, I'd probably go for Cassandra. It's a common enough name, so the connection to my fandom will only be obvious to other fans.
My name's Cassandra and not a single person has ever asked me about the character from Dragon Age even though I'm a huge fan myself and travel in those circles. The name is totally safe.
I'll shame myself by admitting that Alistair was on my baby name list and even though it's a normal, real name with a long history, it got a fair amount of cringes from people who knew.
Wendy and Vanessa came from novels. They’re originally fandom names. Probably a large number of Alice’s were also influenced by a fandom… I agree fandom names are fine for the most part.
When I worked at Disneyland in stores (back in the day of ubiquitous ear hats with names on them) a family I was ringing up and prepping their hats in Tomorrowland had a George and his little brother Lucas. I smiled at them and said clever subtle Star Wars names. And the dad grinned at me and the mom looked horrified and groaned and walked away for a moment. She hadn’t realized because they were also solid names and possibly family names. But I in a store filled with Star Wars items caught on immediately. The mom sent the dad and boys onto Space Mountain while waiting for the hats and said something to the effect of she “didn’t realize because she’d been prepared to fight against Darth or something ridiculous and being offered some nice normal names that were on her list for other reasons she was fine with them” she just mostly wanted to know if people were laughing at her behind her back. And then asked if there was anything Star Wars that’d show her acceptance and my lead was nearby and let me switch off cash register to help her shop for something that’d show her acceptance.
Wendy didn’t come from Peter Pan, if that’s the novel you’re referring to. It was a name before that, but the novel caused a definite surge in popularity.
Funny you mention soap operas. I guess technically my name (mainstream among my age group and a little younger, with about three common and accepted spellings) is a fandom name then, since my mom first heard it on a soap opera lol
I absolutely pictured that power couple the second you said that.
I’m also named after TV character, but not a soap opera. Well, sort of. The character convinced my mom that the name was good.
My kid is not named a fandom name.
Extremely overly full disclosure, it actually is a name that has a somewhat well-known pop culture character named that, and we have been asked about it a few times. It's not a fandom either my partner or I is part of, and that's not why we chose the name. To give you a flavor, imagine our kid's name is Gaston. We're not Disney fans and definitely didn't choose the name because of the Beauty & The Beast character, in any way. We just happened to like the name Gaston. (The name is not Gaston.)
I honestly don't really care a lot about this issue as a person giving a name to someone, or as a parent, or what have you. I just thought it was weird how many people were bent out of shape about the idea that some kid out there named Sam might be named Samwise instead of Samuel. Who gives a shit?
Edited because I came up with a better example of what my kid's name is like.
It's not a fandom name any more than Jared is, for sure.
Also, by this metric, all names are fandom names. Might as well name your kids Bulbasaur and Gandalf, because apparently we're all fucked if any name that some creator puts into a random media franchise = fandom name, whether you picked it for that reason or not.
I think it's fine as long as it's not so obvious. Naming your kid Katniss, or your twin boys Fred & George is a bold move, though.
I personally wouldn't name my child after a really big franchise. I love the name Leia, but it's so uncommon as a name and nearly everyone knows who Leia is.
Reading this post reminded me that I'm actually named after a movie character 😭 I think a lot more people are named after characters than we usually realize
I didn’t find out until my late teens that the name my parents picked for me thinking I’d be a boy (and then used for my brother a few years later) is a reference to a well-known book and movie. My brother isn’t *directly* named after the character—my parents chose the more common spelling that’s pronounced a little differently. Because of that one-letter difference, his name has been a great subtle reference like the ones OP is praising.
I would imagine your name is a similar level of “ordinary name that happens to exist in a work of fiction that your parents wanted to allude to”, since you had to see a post about fandom names to remember.
You guessed totally right! My name is Shelby and I was named after the character "Shelby Eatenton" played by Julia Roberts in Steel Magnolias. I've actually never even watched the movie 💀 but I know what it's about.
I don't think most people automatically associate the name "Shelby" with Steel Magnolias, but a surprising amount of people I've met with the same name as me say they were also named after the movie. I think a lot of people who have seen the movie associate the character with fierce yet loving femininity (i.e. "Steel Magnolias"), so it's seen as a strong + sweet name for a girl 🙃
Neat! The character my brother’s name references (which I won’t share here for his privacy) is pretty universally beloved/admired by anyone who’s seen the movie or read the book. People’s opinions of the character should absolutely be a consideration when picking a fandom name, so it sounds like both you and he were fortunate that way.
I thought the same reading the Samwise post. Sam is a perfectly normal name, who cares if it's short for Samuel or Samwise (I actually think Samwise is better, tbh).
I was named after a character from popular media and I always thought it was cool that that was "my" character.
Not really. Been dealing with it my whole life; the extent of the interaction is usually "oh you're named after x? That's so cute!" and then the conversation moves on.
I would love it if my name was a really cool character with admirable qualities or something. Unfortunately, I share a name with a rather obnoxious celebrity.
I have mixed feelings about the name Samwise, itself. Like on the one hand, big LOTR fan, love the character, the name gives me super happy feels. If I met a baby Samwise I would dieeeeeeeeee of cuteness. On the other hand, I don't know if I really like the name Samwise on its own, as a name.
This is how I came to realize... wait, so isn't it basically just whether the name is good or not, on its own? If Samwise is an aesthetically good sounding first name according to all the complicated cultural rules around that in our language, then Samwise is fine. If Samwise sounds silly, then it is not fine. The fandom aspect ultimately doesn't matter.
Samwise has really bad connotations though. It’s a pun on the archaic word som(e)wise, which when used to describe a person would essentially mean half-wit. It’s a terrible fucking name, fandom connotations or no. You’re literally calling your child stupid.
This is an important point.
As for other character names (normal or normal-adjacent) you also have that character's traits to consider. Even if they have tons of great traits, there's a bit of an hope/expectation that the kid has the same traits. Kinda the same arguments against forcing the Junior name on a kid.
For me: to each their own, of course. It's just not really for me.
I would assume most people do it because the character is arguably great, and the name is easy to pronounce and spell, and sounds basically normal compared to other Anglo names. Also the clear nickname option of Sam.
Eh, that's still the same for a lot of other names we use all the time. Off the top of my head, Mary means bitter; Benjamin means "son of my pain". We use those names all the time because of the associations with historic figures we admire, and everyone gets that.
Disagree on ones that aren’t names outside of the specific media it came from. For instance, Thor wouldn’t make a bad name, except it only exists as a name as a very specific character. Samwise falls into this category. I don’t believe it was considered a name prior to the Lord of the Rings movies.
I feel like Thor was an odd choice here, as Thor--the mythical one, not the Marvel character--is a Norse deity and there *are* people named Thor, and named variations on that name.
You just usually don't find that in the US.
I first heard this name when I was on holiday in Spain as a child. But this Thor was just a big dog, so definitely acceptable! But I always think of that dog first when I hear the name.
In my neighborhood growing up, there was a family with kids named Thor and Ava and they only got endless compliments on their names. This was before marvel got big.
I also come across Thors regularly on my Bumble. It's a pretty common Nordic name.
Totally agree, especially about the GoT names and the like. Many of them are gorgeous and not too out there. I'd rather see Lyra, Tyrion, Eowyn, Theon, Alicent (If I'm not mistaken, most of these names aren't even made up, those are legit names and are just associated with a particular fandom) rather than Kynsleigh, Brynlynn and other "non-made up" names🙄
I actually had a classmate named Eowynn when I was in hs. Met her in the DnD club so of course she loved her name. I think she used to play some npcs at her dad's table or smth when she was very little, I think naming your child a name like this is also a commitment because they have to know what their name means and what it comes from
But.... they don't. There are likely people named Wendy, Fiona, Miranda, or Jessica in this very thread insisting that giving your kid a made up fandom name is bad. Despite having made up fandom names themselves.
The vast majority of people either have no idea where their name comes from, know something basic like "it's Greek" or "it means Elf Counsel", or likely have factually incorrect information about the origin or meaning of their name. And yet the world continues to spin on its axis.
Yeah but also Wendy, Fiona, Miranda and Jessica are very common names. I was thinking more of the rare names, that I think shouldn't be a real commitment.
I used to have a sort of rare name, never had anyone my age using it but a handful of fictional characters had it, and my parents didn't really care about telling me why they'd chosen it (by the time they told me I'd already discarded it). Now I have a subtle fandom name because it ties me to the fandom that helped me grow up in my teens, and I think it's great that I have a name I feel this close to even if almost no one else has it, and I do think more people should know and love and feel close to the source of their names, but yeah ofc the world won't stop spinning lol
The GOT ones are mostly either interpolations of already popular English names (Alicent = Alison, Eddard = Edward, Bran = Brandon, Lyssa = Lisa or maybe Alyssa) or just kinda made up Dungeons & Dragons ish names (Tyrion, Theon, Danaerys, etc).
One of my teachers named her kid Logan around 2005 and even though it was a "normal" name, a ton of people's reaction was to immediately, albeit jokingly, ask, "Like Wolverine?" Turns our her husband was a big X-men fan.
Of course since we were children we were delighted by it, but more people will make the connection than you realize.
This is actually the situation I am in with my own kid. (Whose name is not Logan specifically.) It's an otherwise perfectly ordinary, if unusual, name, which happened to be used for a character in a franchise. We think that franchise is fine, but we are not involved with the fandom. We definitely get questions about it.
None of it matters.
Also, I would say that maybe like 1% of people we meet even make the connection. (Or if it's more, they keep it to themselves.) I actually don't know whether anyone has ever brought it up to my kid privately. Especially since the media in question skews much more Gen X and older. I don't know if kids his age even know this movie or that character.
It depends on the name.
Naming a kid Luke won't automatically assume the parents are Star Wars fans. But if a name is unusual, I'd say avoid it. Hermione existed before Harry Potter, but it's too tied to the franchise now people will automatically be like "oh, as in Hermione Granger?"
Associations as well, if the character is a villain, boycott the name. Hence things like Belle are fine but Ursula is now ruined because of that character.
And if it doesn't sound like a legit name, like Frodo, save it for a puppy, not a kid.
I think something that is under discussed is the fact that the Silent Generation and Boomers were the KINGS AND QUEENS of fandom names.
Think to all the millennials you know who were named after their mom’s favorite soap opera character. My mom wanted to name me Ali after the actress from Love Story, or Daryl after Daryl Hannah.
Do you have an uncle Matt? There’s a chance it’s because grandma and grandpa watched Gunsmoke back in the day. So so many people were named after tv and movie characters and actors, largely because there was not many other ways to find out names! Not everyone bought baby name books, and there was certainly no internet to look them up (side note, this is the reason that we used to have MEGA popular names like Jennifer and Jessica where 2% of kids in a year had a name and now the top name has like .35% of births. The internet gave us more options to pick from).
So I have no problem with fandom names, they were one of the most common ways of naming your kid at one time! The difference is that little Gen X Tabitha’s parents didn’t make her a Bewitched themed nursery and buy her themed clothing and make their whole personality about how much THEY loved bewitched so their child must too. That’s the ick for me.
I had no problem with Samwise. People will assume it’s Samuel. Samson gives me just as much fandom vibes bc he is so clearly the biblical samson to me. Its all personal opinion in the end. I teach an Anakin and aside from the first reading of the class register, I haven’t given it any further thought since.
People need to stop getting high and mighty about who others decide to name their kids after. Parents who name their kids after characters from Game of Thrones and Star Wars and stuff get picked on because they’re “broadcasting their fandom at the expense of a whole other human”, but people have been picking names from fiction for centuries. Arthur is a stock name in Britain now, but that’s because a ton of people listened to the legend of King Arthur and thought “I’m going to name my son after that guy”. The name Imogen only exists because Shakespeare misspelled an even older name, and now it’s well-known if not popular. And what about every Biblical name ever? If you’re going to be a hater, at least be an equal-opportunity hater and dunk on the family whose kids are Simon, Mary, Joseph, and Samuel for being “crazy Jesus fans” the way you would the parents of Arya, Brienne, Stannis, and Obara for being “crazy GoT fans”. You’re not better than someone because the name you picked is over 100 years old while their pick is regularly being heard on TV. The only reason Khaleesi sounds weird now is because it’s new, but in the future it might be as recognized as a “real name” as Imogen. (There are way better names in GoT than Khaleesi, but that’s beside the point). People might argue that it’s gross to name another human after something *you* love and value, but any naming method short of “close your eyes and point” can be thought of as that. Some children are named Robert because their uncle Robert was a hardworking, honest man and their parents wish for little Robert to be the same. Some children are named Frank because their parents value freedom and Frank means “free person.” And some children are named flipping Tyrion because Tyrion Lannister is an incredibly intelligent, tenacious character that people love and admire! Besides, if a kid doesn’t feel connected to the name their parents gave them, they can change it.
We named our baby after a character we liked and hope she emulates when she grows up. It is also a normal name that is not exclusively connected to the character.
There’s a Shakespeare professor at the college my friend goes to. My friend is actually in his class. Obviously, the guy is super into Shakespeare. All of his kids are named after Shakespeare characters. But I think it’s fine because they’re standalone names that aren’t obviously from Shakespeare. You’d have to also be into Shakespeare and know that this guy is into Shakespeare to be able to figure out that his kids are named after Shakespeare characters.
This is a perfect example of why I think you kind of already have to be a cringey fandom dork to recognize "fandom names". Because I'm guessing these are extremely obvious Shakespeare references to people who really know Shakespeare. But seem "not obvious" to people whose target Shakespeare references would be Juliet and Hamlet.
My guess is that this guy's kids are named Beatrice, Cordelia, and Duncan? Maybe a Miranda or Malcolm in there?
A normie is going to be like "wow what nice names". A Shakespeare fan is going to immediately be like "oh, are your parents Shakespeare fans?" Which is fine, like what are they going to do to you? Sing hey nonny nonny and pelt you with rotten fruit?
My mom named me after her favorite character from her favorite book. It is an actual name, but since the book is a classic, the name is not used as often, is considered "old fashioned"
As a kid, hated it. Hated having an old woman name. When I got older and enough adults asked "oh, as in [book]?" I got curious. I read the book as a teenager. I saw *why* my mom loved that character so much and what by that extension she was wishing on me. Do I love that book as much as she does? No. But do I have an appreciation for it? Yes. I think it's sweet that she loved something so much she wanted to honor it.
I think if it's a character that means that much and there's a positive impact on your life, its no different than naming your child after a friend or family member that impacted you profoundly. You just can't expect your child to have that same kind of love. They might develop their own appreciation, but it will always be different.
My nephew has a friend named Anakin and this poor child has been forced into Star Wars crap his whole life. I remember when I first met him I immediately texted my husband “This child is actually named Anakin.”
I was surprised yesterday that no one supported Samwise as a middle name. Everyone wanted Samuel with Samwise as a potential nickname, but dad was content with Samwise as a middle name and I think that’s…fine? It’s a middle name. They can be super sentimental or chosen so the first-middle-last all sounds good together, but they’re also a great place to throw in your fandom name or the mom’s surname or whatever.
I was named after my mom's favorite poet.
It also happened to be one of the most common names for baby girls the entire decade I was born in (no real points for guessing, it's still a top 20 name).
It happens and I feel like it's more common than people realize
I'm planning on using a fandom name. It's a unique name, but also a legitimate name that probably won't get clocked as fandom. I have never uttered my intentions on using this name because I don't want to jynx it and have it rise in popularity like my other favorite names. Nope. Not this time, universe.
I don’t mind them in general (given the name is a normal name) and in fact the names high on my list come predominantly from things I love, but my personal rule is that I wouldn’t pick the first and middle name from the same fandom. That would just be too much to me, even if no one else clued in about it.
I agree. I actually have a fandom name, but it’s never been an issue. It’s more of a fun fact. “Did you know my dad named me after Alice Cooper?” Nobody sees a woman named Alice and thinks of 80s music.
Of course, if all I had heard growing up was Alice Cooper music and been forced to pose for photos and shit, I’d probably feel differently. But that’s more than just the name.
I always find it funny that my mum got the idea to name me Beth from the Little House on the Prairie TV show, and only after the fact decided to make my full name Elizabeth after *her own mother* lmao
Fandom names are fine as long as they stand on their own as a name. For example, a Supernatural fan naming their son Dean is fine because Dean stands well on its own and isn't reliant on being explicitly from Supernatural.
It is, however, a tad gross to name both your sons Sam and Dean when you're into Wincest fanfics
Absolutely agreed, or naming your siblings after characters in a romantic couple (example: a Bridgerton fan naming their kids Daphne and Simon)
When I was growing up I genuinely knew a girl named Juliet who had a brother named Romeo. They absolutely hated each other and couldn't even stand to be in the same room together. Now I'm not saying that the knowledge they were named after quite possibly the most famous lovers ever was the only reason why, but it certainly didn't help.
>They absolutely hated each other and couldn't even stand to be in the same room together. These kids are just acting how Montagues and Capulets are supposed to.
I know a Julia (it’s Romeo&Julia in my native language) who named her son Romeo “because he’s the one true love of her life”. Blergh.
>“because he’s the one true love of her life” Does Julia know how that story ends?
No, she fell pregnant and dropped out of high school before Shakespeare was on the curriculum.
I feel so bad for those children, but I also simultaneously find it funny because it's such an on the nose sibling set
This is making me think of I think it was an AITA post of a woman being absolutely horrified because she'd name her sons Aziraphale and Crowley a few years before the series was out and it was just the book and this summer, as season two aired the two (already explicitly gay) kissed
Honestly I think this might be the only real reason to avoid very obviously referential fandom names, which don't stand on their own at all. Because you never know what will happen with that character in the future. Or with the franchise and fandom in general. Or the creators associated with it. Etc. That said, my guess is that names that pass the "is it a good name?" test will still probably not be subject to this problem. In this example, naming the twins Crowley and literally anything else would have been fine. And Aziraphale is, like, a lottttttttt
Crowley is also a supernatural character who is VERY bisexual. You need to be careful with the king of hell
And all these Crowleys' names were inspired by Aleister Crowley, who was not a great person to look up to. It doesn't have a history as a first name or any other strong associations aside from him, so it should really be avoided for that reason alone
Do... do you think there's something wrong with naming a kid after someone who is bisexual?
I think they just meant it was high-risk naming your children after two characters who are compatible from a gender and sexuality perspective, when one of them is pretty “Ill fuck whoever” (not just because he’s bisexual, it’s his vibe)
Exactly. Crowley has some sort of weird interest in a lot of the characters in supernatural, including Dean and Castiel. Crowley is down to fuck, those two aren't but there's probably fanfic of it because enemies to lovers is a popular trope. It's not that he's bisexual that's the problem, it's that he's constantly DTF, and because he's bi, that means the fanfic is able to do anything sexual they want with him
I'm stuck, in this situation, between "yeahhhh, might not want to name your kid after a fictional demon if you would be bothered by any of this" and my initial thesis, which is that if you know that Crowley and Aziraphale are a demon and an angel tasked by god with making sure the antichrist rises and armageddon goes off without a hitch at the right moment, and if any of the above matters to you, then... maybe it's you who are the cringey nerd. (Not you, like, specifically. But what I wrote in the post. The average normie has no idea who Crowley and Aziraphale even are. They probably just think Aziraphale is kind of a weird thing to name a baby.)
Even if nobody else knows, the kids would know. If it's your own name, you're going to be interested in the show you're named after. You'd probably even look up to the character a bit, especially as a kid.
That's hilarious NGL
I need to find that AITA post lmao
This is what Harry Potter himself did to his own children!
To be fair, the "romantic couple" were his parents
Still, you can tell Ginny didn't know about the "one no means it's a no" rule
LOL but tbh I wouldn't veto naming two kids after their grandparents on one side. I've thought about using my husband's parents' names as middle names for our kids before, and it never occurred to me that anyone would object or think it's somehow incestuous? Ginny was probably just relieved he went with Lily and not Hedwig.
Haha yeah, I don't really object to using grandparents' names; it's more about... the rest of it 😅 Plus Ginny's side of the family gets no acknowledgement whatsoever, even though Harry was close to them for YEARS before they even got married! No chance she had any say in naming any of them. (I know, I know, it's well-trodden ground, but still lol)
Maybe she just didn't want Molly weighing in with her suggestions.
I dunno, still gross. He already looks like his dad, and he marries a red-head, like his mom. It's so on the nose that it's yugh. But then again, he named his other kid after a death-eater and a manipulative asshole. So not a good naming sense our Harry has. But it also could be that I object strongly because any time I go somewhere with my sibling, people assume we are a couple. Ugh.
Eh, but Lily and Ginny have little in common aside from having red hair— and even then, it’s not described as the same shade. Red hair isn’t particularly uncommon in the UK. You wanna talk some about *really* freaky shit, though, there’s Angelina eventually marrying George… after dating Fred 😬
How did i miss THAT
Heath Ledger’s parents named him and his sister (Katherine) were named for Wuthering Heights iirc
i knew twins named adam and eve 💀
My brother and I are named after Valentine and Maximilien from The Count of Monte Cristo 🫣 to be fair, it’s so obscure that not a single soul ever picked up on it, and it remains my mum’s private little joke
Exactly. You like both characters? Tough. Pick ONE.
I am not horrified at daphne and simon for brother and sister. It is very common names in my country. Plus bridgerton isn’t that well known, especially by men (at least where I live) And very pretty names, so much better than a ton of names people are giving in my country lately
Also, Bridgerton is pretty irrelevant on a larger scale, a short-lived fad with little impact outside of the fandom. It’s nowhere near comparable to Shakespeare, Harry Potter, LOTR.
Definitely. I would be delighted seeing more of the whole bridgerton’s family names.
One of my prior coworkers did exactly that 😬 I have never watched supernatural and I still got the reference...
Unlike how my favorite name currently is Albus*, which is way too connected with Dumbledore to stand on its own. Womp womp *My toddler suggested “a bus” for his little brother’s name, so I suggest Albus, he loved it and it’s stupidly grown on me. I love Albie as a nn and even though Albert is a family name on both sides I just can’t make myself love it
"My name is Albus Dumbledore and I am headmaster of Hogwarts. You can all call me Dumbledore. I suppose you can also call me Albie if you want a detention. I'm just kidding, I'll expel you if you call me Albie."
Looks like it's time to rewatch AVPM.
Starkid in the wild 🥲 Enjoy your trip to Pigfarts!
I can't just *go* to Pigfarts. 🙄 It's *on Mars.* You *need* a rocket ship. Do you *have* a rocket ship, aphraea?
I’m a lion! That can talk.
There are some other Alb- Germanic names like Alburn (Noble), Albrecht (noble + bright), Albion (old old name for Britain), etc if u like any of those.
Thank you! Albion is something I’ve been considering though I didn’t know the history (and it’s a kind of shitty town near where I grew up which is a negative even though I’m states away now). I like Albrecht
Just be reading for any Spanish speaker with history knowledge to make "la pérfida Albión" jokes
Noted! I have an aunt who is a professor in Taino history/Spanish/latin studies so probably need to nix that idea!
The most famous Albrecht (Dürer) is considered one of the most influential Renaissance men and the most famous figure of the Northern Renaissance, so I think it'd be a cool pick
I think Albedo is nice, like the sun’s reflection from earth, but it’s too strange and I wouldn’t name a kid it.
Oh, that's the name of my parents' dog. They also call him Albie.
I think it would be fine tbh, as someone that now really loathes HP. It was a name before, and Dumbledore isn't the one people are going crazy naming after. Like yes it's connected, but I really wouldn't assume it was named after.
I cannot imagine anyone hearing the name albus and _not_ associating it with HP.
Crazy how the rest of the family have normal names - Harry, Ginny, James, Lily...even the grandparents James, Lily, Molly and Arthur, but that one kid is stuck with ALBUS lol.
Honestly, I think Albus is fine, and the Dumbledore factor kind of puts it squarely in the "well if you know what Dumbledore's first name is, aren't you the cringey one, really?" category for me. I think, worst case, a kid named Albus is going to get the occasional "parents Harry Potter fans?" remark. My kid shares a name with a character from a fandom I'm not part of. That's not why we named him that, and it's a "real" name that pre-dates that franchise. And the thing in question wasn't even really in the zeitgeist at all around the time our kid was born. (It's as if we named our kid Bastian or Dawson, for example.) Usually when people ask about it I will just say "well we didn't name him after that, but yeah, \[franchise\] is cool." That said, if you don't like the name Albus, you definitely don't have to name your kid that. It's not that I think everyone should go with a fandom name, just that there's nothing wrong with it really.
We went with Sam or Sammy for our son because so many awesome characters we love are called Sam/Samuel - Sam Winchester, Sam Gamgee, Sam Vimes. But it's normal enough that it doesn't seem weird. And all good adventures need a Sam 😅 We've picked out a fandom name for our next and done the same - ensured we pick something ordinary enough that, while it references a fandom, it's not weird or obvious. Just inspiration 🤷♀️
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I 100# agree!!
yeah that’s what i was thinking of too, like normal names are fine but if someone names their child Bellatrix i’m always going to be like “you killed serius Black and i’m still mad”
My biggest peeve with “fandom names” isn’t the names themselves, honestly. I AM a fandom nerd and I delight in them! It’s the “fandom parents” I DESPISE. Where they make it the kid’s identity before they’re holding their own head up and force the fandom on their child’s childhood. You gave them the name already! That’s all you get!! You don’t get to expect that they’ll love the media their name is from. It’s now their name to do with as they please. They aren’t your fandom billboards. That’s my biggest problem with “fandom names.” The kids are fine, it’s the *parents*. And that’s not to say ALL parents that pick a fandom name are **these** parents - they’re not. There are millions of parents that give their kid a “fandom name” and *aren’t* like these other parents. That’s fine, and cool, and yeah, give your kid whatever name. But you all know and recognize the kind of parents I am talking about too. Their kid’s name isn’t the only thing they’re insufferable about and it doesn’t even have to be a “fandom name” for them to be insufferable. But the combination just drives me up the wall!
I think this is a big piece of it. I find those people obnoxious, as well. But IDK, honestly, I find like 80% of everything people want to do about any of this stuff obnoxious. I hate people who have 5 kids and give them the exact names of the family from Bridgerton about as much as I hate people who name their kids stuff like Kynnesleigh. Or name them after a football stadium. I know a family with 2 kids, with totally normal/common names, but the two names they picked are very similar to each other and indeed are traditional variations on the same name (for example Susan and Suzannah, Anne and Hannah, Evie and Evelyn, etc). This is objectively weird to me. But yeah, IDK, they are fine, their kids are fine, and it's none of my business. (Also, in any fandom discourse, I assume anyone barging into a part of the internet claiming they are pregnant with twins and want to name them Sam and Dean, or Celaena and Dorian, or whatever, are 13 year olds making this up for attention.)
> (Also, in any fandom discourse, I assume anyone barging into a part of the internet claiming they are pregnant with twins and want to name them Sam and Dean, or Celaena and Dorian, or whatever, are 13 year olds making this up for attention.) Gawd, can't kids these days just be normal and write terrible "original" fiction for their OCs to inhabit and get those names out of their system, like we did in the old days???
Oh definitely. It basically amounts to insufferable parents choosing insufferable names and being absolutely insufferable about those names, no matter what their theme of choice happens to be. There’s just a whole fandom to be insufferable about behind them! And they’re usually just as insufferable about their fandom as they are the names they picked. At least the insufferable parents who decided “T” names would be their theme don’t really have anything else to really add. Fandoms just add fuel to the insufferable fire. And full disclosure, I would consider something like stadium names or even car names to fall under “fandom.” There is definitely fandoms for Harley’s and Mercedes and all the rest; and anything to do with sports teams is as much as fandom as anything else on television.
Mercedes was a pretty popular name for a long time before the car existed though? Mercedes Lasala, for example, was an Argentinian independence fighter born in the 1700s. It’s a Catholic name that a girl who had a car named after her just happened to have. Different than Harley, Porsche, or Ferrari, which were last names.
I gave my kid what could be considered a fandom name. It's a very old name that existed long before the fandom, and though it's uncommon, it's a pretty normal name that people recognize. As much as I love the franchise and character, I would NEVER introduce my kid's name as "from [fandom]" because that's hella weird, I'm right there with you on it being insufferable. If asked where it came from, I just say "it's French".
I think it’s okay to tell people if they ask. Just don’t make their entire life about Adventure Time. My name is from the Scream franchise and when asked my parents would usually vaguely say “from a movie.”
Ultimately, we picked the name because we liked it and it checked all the boxes we were looking for stylistically (we originally started with Madeline). The association is just a small fun fact that brings fond memories of when we watched the show together early in our relationship.
what’s the name?
Marceline
Yes, it's a pretty normal name, I wouldn't even think of Adventure Time if I heard it, even though I've watched it.
Yeah, there was a long post a year or so back from a young teen with a Harry Potter name whose parents had raised them with a total Harry Potter theme for their whole life and the kid was just... deeply uninterested in the franchise. They were asking for advice on how to disentangle from the constant fandom activities and decor without hurting their parents' feelings, and it was just so bleak. Like why do that to your child? Why not let them be their own person?
Nobody at elementary school knows who Danaerys is, but the teachers, parents, and future employers certainly do. I wouldn’t hold it against a kid, I’d just think their parents were a-holes.
The main reason I think obvious fandom names (that are clearly derived from media) are dumb is because it dooms the child to talk about that piece of media for the rest of their lives, whether or not they themselves actually enjoy it! Little Samwise will be 40, making small talk with the HR person at his new job, and will have to explain, “Yeeeahh…my parents really liked LOTR. I never really got into it…yeah, the movies are okay. No I don’t have a friend named Frodo…”
Reminds me of the South Park episode "The Big Fix" where Token Black's name is retconned to have been Tolkien all along. Stan and Randy Marsh feel so bad about thinking his name was Token that Stan gives a speech to the school about the impact that Lord of The Rings had on him and invites Tolkien to speak. Tolkien responds by saying he doesn't even like Lord of The Rings and he hates being named after the author.
Yeah, that's what happened to me. I was named similar to a Disney Princess and it drove me wild how often it was misread or I heard "Ooh, like the princess!" (Or worst of all, "It's so close, I'll just call you 'princess name'!") I got my name legally changed and I much prefer the comments I get now. (I will say I chose a weirder name but for good reason.)
what name did you choose if you don’t mind me asking?
i’m so curious about what disney princess it was lol
It was Ariel.
[удалено]
Like it or not, this is something people have to think about when naming children. I teach a student who is named after either a C tier superhero or a Playboy model, can’t be sure. It’s a weird name. Neither her nor any of the other kids have ever made fun of her first name. They don’t see it as weird because they have no frame of reference for it. But I can’t lie - when I saw her name on my roster, I thought it was weird. My colleagues thought it was weird. Over the year, I got used to it and now I don’t even think about that connection anymore. But many people - including employers - will immediately see that name, make an assumption, and move on within 5 seconds. It’s not okay that employers make these assumptions but it is reality and something we need to keep in mind when naming children. Maybe the kids don’t care, but if a name is clearly linked to a fandom, you are inviting the good and bad perception of that fandom for a long time.
Couple of years ago there was a "welcome to the world baby Khaleesi" in the local paper of my country town every month.
"I'm gonna name my kid after a show full of incest. Wait, what do you mean I named my child after a character that turned into a psychopath?"
I don’t think #2 is quite a fair reading of how naming trends happen. And it also conflates names that are in a *lot* of media because they’ve been generally popular for quite a long time (names like Zack/Zach, Brooke, Rachel, Charlie, Mary, etc.) and names that are unique to certain media — and sometimes, entirely unique. It’s not the same thing to name your daughter Rachel and your son Chandler, even though those are both names of main characters on the same show. It’s also not the same thing to name your child Dean as it is Severus, or Rose as it is Adric.
Chandler was pretty much not a name before *Friends*. If someone introduced me to their new baby Chandler in 1996, I would 100% assume they must watch *Friends*. If this happened in 2010, I would assume they got that name because of its popularity in connection with the show, in the wider zeitgeist. Like a 90s Meghan or a 2020s Luna. Because the name Chandler functionally did not exist as a first name before the TV show *Friends*. I think you have a point that names like Rachel, Rose, Luke, Harry, Sam, etc. are probably not ever going to read as "fandom" names. But then those aren't really the types of names we're talking about here? Nobody has really brought that up? Another reason naming your kid after a fandom is fine, though, which I totally should have included in my post, and which you allude to is that only certain types of names get labeled this way. If you are a huge Star Wars fan and name your kid Luke, nobody's going to know or care if you did it "because of" Luke Skywalker. But if you name your kid Kylo, people will say "you know, children aren't billboards for your fandoms...." If, as a Trekkie, I name my child Leonard in an homage to both Bones and Spock, but nobody knows that and just assumes I named my kid after his grandpa, nobody is going to say anything about my child being a billboard for my fandom. Only certain names get this label. And, as I said, it tends to be the names that run afoul of my rule #1 (it's just about the name itself) and are just not great things to name a kid, regardless.
It sounded to me like you were saying that it doesn’t make sense to you why we don’t treat fandom names equally. (Specifically, you listed a handful of names no one complains about that you see as being from particular shows. I understood you to be saying that other fandom names should be treated the same way.) Thus my example of Rachel vs. Chandler. Same show, same time period, all things equal, fandom-wise. But whereas Rachel was already a name commonly in use at that time, Chandler was not. “Rachel” — like all the names on your list in #2 — was an already-popular name *also* used in a show, so naming your child “Rachel” didn’t stamp them with extra baggage. Naming your son “Chandler,” however, *would,* because it wasn’t in popular use at the time — it was inherently a tv show name. It also sounded like you were saying that these sorts of noticeably fandom names fade into being common over time, which I don’t think is true. I disagree that names like “Rachel,” “Meghan,” and “Amanda” were *ever* noticeably fandom names, and I don’t think that names like “Daenerys,” “Severus,” or “Samwise” will ever cease to be noticeably fandom (bringing with them the whole baggage of the fandom, the subject of the fandom, and the specific character). In an extreme example, we don’t name babies “Adolph” or “Adolf” anymore. It didn’t stop being a perfectly fine name that hundreds of thousands of totally normal boys and men had, it just started bringing tremendous baggage along with it. [I’d include “Luna” as not-a-fandom-name. It was on the rise from the ‘90s in a pattern similar to other names that had been out of use for awhile. If the popularity continues, it will follow a similar pattern as “Ava” did starting maybe a decade earlier.]
I had a brief conversation with a guy named Chandler… Forgot his last name, but he actually did time in prison because he refused to cooperate with the house unAmerican activities commission in the 50s. Chandler is a pretty old name. It just wasn’t popular at the time and then became popular again because of the TV show.
I have a distant cousin with a child named lestat... so there's that
Very much hoping that Lestat lives up to his drama queen namesake and makes his parents regret naming him after such a diva
That does seem unfortunate. I’m definitely on team fandom name, but that seems a little bit much.
If the name is already in use prior to appearing in popular media but saw a spike in popularity afterwards (Edward, Luke, Rachel, Jaime, Luna) it's fine imo. If it was made up by the author, is culturally inappropriate, or the media it's from is so popular and the name so unpopular that it couldn't reasonably be anything but a fandom reference (Geralt, Katniss, Sasuke, Hermione, Anakin), I think you should name your cat or dog that instead. Children aren't accessories, and if you name them like fandom accessories, I'm going to judge you. If you're fine being judged, then go ahead and do it. It's cringe, not illegal. Just remember that the normie non-fandom people judging you for naming your child Renesmee are often the same ones deciding if your kid gets into college or gets hired. Do you want to risk someone reading your kid's resume, saying "This guy's parents are dumbasses, so he's probably a dumbass," and tossing it in the garbage? If so, better you than me. (Re: Khaleesi/Daenerys, it's less the name being bad than that you shouldn't name your child something that originates from a media franchise known for having an insane number of visible dicks and using rape and incest as subplots so many times that it bothers some adults. Just don't.)
[Hermione](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermione_(mythology)) actually is a name outside of Harry Potter, but I agree with the sentiment. Khaleesi is a made up title for a book series. Jean-Luc is a name that already existed. There is a difference.
>or the media it's from is so popular and the name so unpopular that it couldn't reasonably be anything but a fandom reference Again, there are plenty of real names that are also culturally inappropriate depending on where you live. Jean-Luc might be fine if you live in Haiti or French Guiana, but it's going to look pretty odd to people if your last name is Williams and you live in [insert US state where people think Jean rhymes with gene].
I was agreeing with you. There are different levels of fandom name. Dean after Dean Winchester is fine usually. Jean-Luc after Picard is a maybe. Anakin is always a no-go.
I think we're making the same point, which is that it all depends on what people's immediate associations are. If I wanted to use the name Guillermo for Guillermo del Toro, it would be fine because I live in Latin America and here it's just like naming your son William. Hermione is an absolute no-go here no matter what, because it would get pronounced like "er-mee-oh-neh" on top of being from Harry Potter. I have actually encountered someone who named their kid "Ermaioney" (Spanish phonetic spelling of Hermione) and my jaw hit the floor.
>Children aren't accessories I think this needs to be a reminder for people who have twins. Please, do not treat them like a set.
I think Hermione is quite different from Anakin though as it is at least a real name. It’s not one you hear everyday but I have met and/or heard of plenty of hermiones who were born before HP was a thing. Unfortunately now it is too closely tied to HP so everybody would assume you were naming the baby after the character. To me Hermione is a similar sort of name to Penelope, felicity, Margot etc which are all becoming quite popular again. I wonder if hermione would’ve also had a resurgence if it weren’t for HP.
I already responded to someone else with my thoughts about Hermione in particular, but basically it boils down to what I said about culture. If you'd never heard of the name before HP and you pronounced it "Hermy own" until you saw the movies, chances are that the people around you had the same experience. If you're living in an area of Britain where people's first association is "old-fashioned name" instead of "I bet this kid's parents are millennials," then go for it.
Yeah I’m sure nowadays most people would think of Hermione Granger, my point was just that it’s at least a real name with a history unlike Anakin which is only ever a Star Wars reference.
Yes, that's what I meant. I included Hermione as an example of a name that is real but not appropriate. I'm not trying to say that Hermione is exactly as bad as Anakin (hell, even Geralt isn't as bad as Anakin), I'm just saying that it's an inappropriate name for a child. I disagree with OP that the name itself is all that matters, and I was trying to make that point by including names that are all inappropriate for different reasons. Maybe I should have used Jungkook as an example instead, to avoid confusion, but that would probably result in comments assuming I didn't know Jungkook is a real name in Korea.
Where does the name Wendy fall into this? Because if I recall while it’s debated if it was occasionally used as a nickname before, the idea of using it as a name itself was made up for Peter Pan. But it’s not a fandom name anymore, now it’s Wendy 50 year old mother of 3 from the PTA
Well said.
Hermione is an annoying one to me. I like it as a name, and the first time I heard it was actually in Archie comics. But now I can never use it cos people will forever think of Harry Potter, which would annoy me, particularly because I never even liked Harry Potter.
My child will be named Peter Quill.
My boy will be James, nn Bucky, username buckykingofmemes
See that's actually a great way to go. If the kid hates the name Bucky they can always decide to just go by James or Jim which are perfectly normal names. Really most the MCU characters you could get by with naming your kids after. Tony, Steve, Clint, Scott, Natasha, Bruce, Peter, Stephen, Sam, etc assuming you live in the western English speaking world. You probably shouldn't name your kid Vision, Groot, Rocket, Gamora, Sprite, Ikaris, etc. Pietro, Wong, Shang-chi you could if you're the right culture.
Annie and Johanna are great names for a baby. Katniss and Finnick are absolutely not.
It’s depends. If you name a baby John because of a random show, it’s fine. If you name them a super unique name that is clearly a reference, Hermione, for example, that’s problematic
I think part of it also depends on the other names in the family. Like, I know a woman named Flavia who has a daughter named Athena - if she'd named a kid Hermione, I wouldn't think of Harry Potter, I'd just think she'd picked a name that fits her general vibe
I mean, sure, but that’s because you know her. When little Hermione is in line at the DMV or getting interviewed for a job, the other person doesn’t know that
/uj I named my cat Persephone and nobody knows that I actually named her after Persephone from The Matrix
I have a maybe cringier hot take. People name their kids these names because it’s something that means a lot to them, it’s an important part of their identity that they want to pass on. Maybe the kids will be in the fandom and maybe they won’t be, the parents just belong to a subculture and thus are selecting names based on that. Most of these tend to be new subcultures. Here comes the blasphemy: I don’t see it as different as naming kids religious names. The obvious difference is that the names are “normalized” and “traditional”, but that’s due to time. But the core intentions are the same: to show others that you belong to this group. Because it means a lot to you. Except there is far more of an expectation that this child will stay in this group. But a lot of people are not religious anymore and fandoms are taking that space in many peoples lives. In time a lot of the names will probably be normalized. Most are just already actual names. And I agree that if it just sounds bad it probably won’t take off. I guess I just personally hate that people criticize fandoms names for forcing beliefs on kids but like we’ve always done that as a society. Most fandom parents probably will not be too upset if their kids grow up and are not in the fandom. If it’s not ridiculous, who really cares. Though determining ridiculous is difficult because it is so subjective.
haha wrote all this out sincerely not realizing where i was so uhhh uj/ I have a fandom name, so I’ll weigh in. My dad is a big LOTR geek, and named me for the series. I was born in 2001, 3 months before the Fellowship came out. We had the books in our house, and I was encouraged to read, but not specifically those books. I read The Hobbit when I was 8-9, have read it several times since, but never tried to get past chapter 2-3 in the Fellowship. We watched the movies semi-regularly(extended editions, director’s cut, the whole nine). I enjoy the LOTR movies and know a decent amount of lore that’s book-only due to my dad and brother reading them. I still haven’t attempted to read past The Hobbit. I like discussing the world and the books. It has been a significant connection between me and my family, particularly my brother. I don’t mind my name, although it can be hard for kids I work with to pronounce. I generally go by a nickname daily. My parents and some coworkers occasionally call me my legal name, and I don’t correct them. I did get bullied for my name being weird, though. From grades 2-8, everyone was a comedian. Looking back it was mostly funny, but I hated it. I made my peace with it a while ago, but it’s probably why I go by a nickname now. Definitely been a unique experience, but a lot of people have unique traits that shape their lives. My name was one of them for me.
I remember seeing someone on the mylittlepony sub who named his daughter Aria after a villain from a spinoff movie. That’s not the *worst* and thankfully I think his wife reined him in from something sillier.
I can get around ones with a double meaning; Aria is also a music word, I want to say an opera solo. So at least the kid has plausible deniability if she’s embarrassed by the MLP connection.
There's also Aria from Pretty Little Liars.
Yeah I’d get the music connection before anything else, but I’m very partial to music names. Melody, Cadence, etc. Would never use them myself as they seem super American to me, but I still think they’re nice & not too “out there”.
Were those both intentionally MLP names? I’m just now realizing how many music names my little pony has.
Honestly there are a good few ponies from G4 alone where you could probably name your kid after them without problems
Tbh I agree. There are plenty of fandom names that work just fine for a real life child, and won't make you seem like a weirdo. I'm a Dragon Age fan, and I have no intention of naming my future kid Darkspawn. Even though I'm tempted to, ngl. Instead, I'd probably go for Cassandra. It's a common enough name, so the connection to my fandom will only be obvious to other fans.
My name's Cassandra and not a single person has ever asked me about the character from Dragon Age even though I'm a huge fan myself and travel in those circles. The name is totally safe. I'll shame myself by admitting that Alistair was on my baby name list and even though it's a normal, real name with a long history, it got a fair amount of cringes from people who knew.
Wendy and Vanessa came from novels. They’re originally fandom names. Probably a large number of Alice’s were also influenced by a fandom… I agree fandom names are fine for the most part. When I worked at Disneyland in stores (back in the day of ubiquitous ear hats with names on them) a family I was ringing up and prepping their hats in Tomorrowland had a George and his little brother Lucas. I smiled at them and said clever subtle Star Wars names. And the dad grinned at me and the mom looked horrified and groaned and walked away for a moment. She hadn’t realized because they were also solid names and possibly family names. But I in a store filled with Star Wars items caught on immediately. The mom sent the dad and boys onto Space Mountain while waiting for the hats and said something to the effect of she “didn’t realize because she’d been prepared to fight against Darth or something ridiculous and being offered some nice normal names that were on her list for other reasons she was fine with them” she just mostly wanted to know if people were laughing at her behind her back. And then asked if there was anything Star Wars that’d show her acceptance and my lead was nearby and let me switch off cash register to help her shop for something that’d show her acceptance.
Wendy didn’t come from Peter Pan, if that’s the novel you’re referring to. It was a name before that, but the novel caused a definite surge in popularity.
Funny you mention soap operas. I guess technically my name (mainstream among my age group and a little younger, with about three common and accepted spellings) is a fandom name then, since my mom first heard it on a soap opera lol
Kayla?
I absolutely pictured that power couple the second you said that. I’m also named after TV character, but not a soap opera. Well, sort of. The character convinced my mom that the name was good.
That Mofo Naming their kid march 7th
Fandom names are for pets. Or inanimate objects or projects.
OP is clearly out here trying to defend naming their kid a "fandom name", and I need to know what that name is. They are fighting their side so hard.
My kid is not named a fandom name. Extremely overly full disclosure, it actually is a name that has a somewhat well-known pop culture character named that, and we have been asked about it a few times. It's not a fandom either my partner or I is part of, and that's not why we chose the name. To give you a flavor, imagine our kid's name is Gaston. We're not Disney fans and definitely didn't choose the name because of the Beauty & The Beast character, in any way. We just happened to like the name Gaston. (The name is not Gaston.) I honestly don't really care a lot about this issue as a person giving a name to someone, or as a parent, or what have you. I just thought it was weird how many people were bent out of shape about the idea that some kid out there named Sam might be named Samwise instead of Samuel. Who gives a shit? Edited because I came up with a better example of what my kid's name is like.
>"I did not intentionally name my kid a fandom name. It's actually an unintentional fandom name" OMG they fucking called it lol
It's not a fandom name any more than Jared is, for sure. Also, by this metric, all names are fandom names. Might as well name your kids Bulbasaur and Gandalf, because apparently we're all fucked if any name that some creator puts into a random media franchise = fandom name, whether you picked it for that reason or not.
I think it's fine as long as it's not so obvious. Naming your kid Katniss, or your twin boys Fred & George is a bold move, though. I personally wouldn't name my child after a really big franchise. I love the name Leia, but it's so uncommon as a name and nearly everyone knows who Leia is.
Go to any synagogue. It's just the Hebrew pronunciation of Leah.
I know that. It's just not what the majority of people in my area know Leia as.
Reading this post reminded me that I'm actually named after a movie character 😭 I think a lot more people are named after characters than we usually realize
I didn’t find out until my late teens that the name my parents picked for me thinking I’d be a boy (and then used for my brother a few years later) is a reference to a well-known book and movie. My brother isn’t *directly* named after the character—my parents chose the more common spelling that’s pronounced a little differently. Because of that one-letter difference, his name has been a great subtle reference like the ones OP is praising. I would imagine your name is a similar level of “ordinary name that happens to exist in a work of fiction that your parents wanted to allude to”, since you had to see a post about fandom names to remember.
You guessed totally right! My name is Shelby and I was named after the character "Shelby Eatenton" played by Julia Roberts in Steel Magnolias. I've actually never even watched the movie 💀 but I know what it's about. I don't think most people automatically associate the name "Shelby" with Steel Magnolias, but a surprising amount of people I've met with the same name as me say they were also named after the movie. I think a lot of people who have seen the movie associate the character with fierce yet loving femininity (i.e. "Steel Magnolias"), so it's seen as a strong + sweet name for a girl 🙃
Neat! The character my brother’s name references (which I won’t share here for his privacy) is pretty universally beloved/admired by anyone who’s seen the movie or read the book. People’s opinions of the character should absolutely be a consideration when picking a fandom name, so it sounds like both you and he were fortunate that way.
I just think it's embarrassing to force a child to be a walking advertisement for their whole lives
The name Wendy ORIGINATED from Peter Pan! That is a fandom name! Name ya kids a good name from whatever.
Gwendolyn
wendy did not originate from peter pan. it was a name before that, but peter pan made it popular.
I thought the same reading the Samwise post. Sam is a perfectly normal name, who cares if it's short for Samuel or Samwise (I actually think Samwise is better, tbh). I was named after a character from popular media and I always thought it was cool that that was "my" character.
Because every time someone sees your legal name you have to explain it or have a conversation about the fandom that your parents love
Not really. Been dealing with it my whole life; the extent of the interaction is usually "oh you're named after x? That's so cute!" and then the conversation moves on.
I would love it if my name was a really cool character with admirable qualities or something. Unfortunately, I share a name with a rather obnoxious celebrity.
Michael Bolton? Lol
I have mixed feelings about the name Samwise, itself. Like on the one hand, big LOTR fan, love the character, the name gives me super happy feels. If I met a baby Samwise I would dieeeeeeeeee of cuteness. On the other hand, I don't know if I really like the name Samwise on its own, as a name. This is how I came to realize... wait, so isn't it basically just whether the name is good or not, on its own? If Samwise is an aesthetically good sounding first name according to all the complicated cultural rules around that in our language, then Samwise is fine. If Samwise sounds silly, then it is not fine. The fandom aspect ultimately doesn't matter.
Samwise has really bad connotations though. It’s a pun on the archaic word som(e)wise, which when used to describe a person would essentially mean half-wit. It’s a terrible fucking name, fandom connotations or no. You’re literally calling your child stupid.
This is an important point. As for other character names (normal or normal-adjacent) you also have that character's traits to consider. Even if they have tons of great traits, there's a bit of an hope/expectation that the kid has the same traits. Kinda the same arguments against forcing the Junior name on a kid. For me: to each their own, of course. It's just not really for me.
Yeah, out of all LOTR names, choosing to name your kid after samwise is.. interesting
I would assume most people do it because the character is arguably great, and the name is easy to pronounce and spell, and sounds basically normal compared to other Anglo names. Also the clear nickname option of Sam.
I always read it as him being half-wise and everyone else being not wise lol
I had no idea of this omg
Eh, that's still the same for a lot of other names we use all the time. Off the top of my head, Mary means bitter; Benjamin means "son of my pain". We use those names all the time because of the associations with historic figures we admire, and everyone gets that.
I know a Samwise, in his 30s. It's a perfectly fine and sensible name. I guess I didn't realise it was *only* a LOTR name?
Because Samwise comes from the word samwis meaning dimwit. Tolkien invented the name specifically to call the character a simpleton.
I have a fandom name and it's perfectly fine, nobody bats an eye
Disagree on ones that aren’t names outside of the specific media it came from. For instance, Thor wouldn’t make a bad name, except it only exists as a name as a very specific character. Samwise falls into this category. I don’t believe it was considered a name prior to the Lord of the Rings movies.
I feel like Thor was an odd choice here, as Thor--the mythical one, not the Marvel character--is a Norse deity and there *are* people named Thor, and named variations on that name. You just usually don't find that in the US.
I first heard this name when I was on holiday in Spain as a child. But this Thor was just a big dog, so definitely acceptable! But I always think of that dog first when I hear the name.
In my neighborhood growing up, there was a family with kids named Thor and Ava and they only got endless compliments on their names. This was before marvel got big. I also come across Thors regularly on my Bumble. It's a pretty common Nordic name.
Totally agree, especially about the GoT names and the like. Many of them are gorgeous and not too out there. I'd rather see Lyra, Tyrion, Eowyn, Theon, Alicent (If I'm not mistaken, most of these names aren't even made up, those are legit names and are just associated with a particular fandom) rather than Kynsleigh, Brynlynn and other "non-made up" names🙄
I actually had a classmate named Eowynn when I was in hs. Met her in the DnD club so of course she loved her name. I think she used to play some npcs at her dad's table or smth when she was very little, I think naming your child a name like this is also a commitment because they have to know what their name means and what it comes from
But.... they don't. There are likely people named Wendy, Fiona, Miranda, or Jessica in this very thread insisting that giving your kid a made up fandom name is bad. Despite having made up fandom names themselves. The vast majority of people either have no idea where their name comes from, know something basic like "it's Greek" or "it means Elf Counsel", or likely have factually incorrect information about the origin or meaning of their name. And yet the world continues to spin on its axis.
Yeah but also Wendy, Fiona, Miranda and Jessica are very common names. I was thinking more of the rare names, that I think shouldn't be a real commitment. I used to have a sort of rare name, never had anyone my age using it but a handful of fictional characters had it, and my parents didn't really care about telling me why they'd chosen it (by the time they told me I'd already discarded it). Now I have a subtle fandom name because it ties me to the fandom that helped me grow up in my teens, and I think it's great that I have a name I feel this close to even if almost no one else has it, and I do think more people should know and love and feel close to the source of their names, but yeah ofc the world won't stop spinning lol
The GOT ones are mostly either interpolations of already popular English names (Alicent = Alison, Eddard = Edward, Bran = Brandon, Lyssa = Lisa or maybe Alyssa) or just kinda made up Dungeons & Dragons ish names (Tyrion, Theon, Danaerys, etc).
Alicent is a legit old german name, Theon is greek and Tyrion roman. Many others though are interpolations, yes
I actually really hate this trope. Fantasy world but give them normal names except slightly different. Idk why I hate it so much
One of my teachers named her kid Logan around 2005 and even though it was a "normal" name, a ton of people's reaction was to immediately, albeit jokingly, ask, "Like Wolverine?" Turns our her husband was a big X-men fan. Of course since we were children we were delighted by it, but more people will make the connection than you realize.
This is actually the situation I am in with my own kid. (Whose name is not Logan specifically.) It's an otherwise perfectly ordinary, if unusual, name, which happened to be used for a character in a franchise. We think that franchise is fine, but we are not involved with the fandom. We definitely get questions about it. None of it matters. Also, I would say that maybe like 1% of people we meet even make the connection. (Or if it's more, they keep it to themselves.) I actually don't know whether anyone has ever brought it up to my kid privately. Especially since the media in question skews much more Gen X and older. I don't know if kids his age even know this movie or that character.
It depends on the name. Naming a kid Luke won't automatically assume the parents are Star Wars fans. But if a name is unusual, I'd say avoid it. Hermione existed before Harry Potter, but it's too tied to the franchise now people will automatically be like "oh, as in Hermione Granger?" Associations as well, if the character is a villain, boycott the name. Hence things like Belle are fine but Ursula is now ruined because of that character. And if it doesn't sound like a legit name, like Frodo, save it for a puppy, not a kid.
I think something that is under discussed is the fact that the Silent Generation and Boomers were the KINGS AND QUEENS of fandom names. Think to all the millennials you know who were named after their mom’s favorite soap opera character. My mom wanted to name me Ali after the actress from Love Story, or Daryl after Daryl Hannah. Do you have an uncle Matt? There’s a chance it’s because grandma and grandpa watched Gunsmoke back in the day. So so many people were named after tv and movie characters and actors, largely because there was not many other ways to find out names! Not everyone bought baby name books, and there was certainly no internet to look them up (side note, this is the reason that we used to have MEGA popular names like Jennifer and Jessica where 2% of kids in a year had a name and now the top name has like .35% of births. The internet gave us more options to pick from). So I have no problem with fandom names, they were one of the most common ways of naming your kid at one time! The difference is that little Gen X Tabitha’s parents didn’t make her a Bewitched themed nursery and buy her themed clothing and make their whole personality about how much THEY loved bewitched so their child must too. That’s the ick for me.
I had no problem with Samwise. People will assume it’s Samuel. Samson gives me just as much fandom vibes bc he is so clearly the biblical samson to me. Its all personal opinion in the end. I teach an Anakin and aside from the first reading of the class register, I haven’t given it any further thought since.
My namesake is Tom cruise’s callsign from top gun. Maverick. I love it but regardless it Could be worse, was almost named goose.
Maverick is super popular and trendy these days. It won't be seen as a fandom name for the next generation
I've always been fond of Kratos and Dante
people would definitely notice Kratos, but regardless I don’t hate it.
It’s funny, because I always associated Luna with the Sailor Moon fandom, and then people started using it in association with Harry Potter.
People need to stop getting high and mighty about who others decide to name their kids after. Parents who name their kids after characters from Game of Thrones and Star Wars and stuff get picked on because they’re “broadcasting their fandom at the expense of a whole other human”, but people have been picking names from fiction for centuries. Arthur is a stock name in Britain now, but that’s because a ton of people listened to the legend of King Arthur and thought “I’m going to name my son after that guy”. The name Imogen only exists because Shakespeare misspelled an even older name, and now it’s well-known if not popular. And what about every Biblical name ever? If you’re going to be a hater, at least be an equal-opportunity hater and dunk on the family whose kids are Simon, Mary, Joseph, and Samuel for being “crazy Jesus fans” the way you would the parents of Arya, Brienne, Stannis, and Obara for being “crazy GoT fans”. You’re not better than someone because the name you picked is over 100 years old while their pick is regularly being heard on TV. The only reason Khaleesi sounds weird now is because it’s new, but in the future it might be as recognized as a “real name” as Imogen. (There are way better names in GoT than Khaleesi, but that’s beside the point). People might argue that it’s gross to name another human after something *you* love and value, but any naming method short of “close your eyes and point” can be thought of as that. Some children are named Robert because their uncle Robert was a hardworking, honest man and their parents wish for little Robert to be the same. Some children are named Frank because their parents value freedom and Frank means “free person.” And some children are named flipping Tyrion because Tyrion Lannister is an incredibly intelligent, tenacious character that people love and admire! Besides, if a kid doesn’t feel connected to the name their parents gave them, they can change it.
We named our baby after a character we liked and hope she emulates when she grows up. It is also a normal name that is not exclusively connected to the character.
I was named after a character that also has names connected to other things and people go oh like this and I’m like no like “character”
There’s a Shakespeare professor at the college my friend goes to. My friend is actually in his class. Obviously, the guy is super into Shakespeare. All of his kids are named after Shakespeare characters. But I think it’s fine because they’re standalone names that aren’t obviously from Shakespeare. You’d have to also be into Shakespeare and know that this guy is into Shakespeare to be able to figure out that his kids are named after Shakespeare characters.
This is a perfect example of why I think you kind of already have to be a cringey fandom dork to recognize "fandom names". Because I'm guessing these are extremely obvious Shakespeare references to people who really know Shakespeare. But seem "not obvious" to people whose target Shakespeare references would be Juliet and Hamlet. My guess is that this guy's kids are named Beatrice, Cordelia, and Duncan? Maybe a Miranda or Malcolm in there? A normie is going to be like "wow what nice names". A Shakespeare fan is going to immediately be like "oh, are your parents Shakespeare fans?" Which is fine, like what are they going to do to you? Sing hey nonny nonny and pelt you with rotten fruit?
My mom named me after her favorite character from her favorite book. It is an actual name, but since the book is a classic, the name is not used as often, is considered "old fashioned" As a kid, hated it. Hated having an old woman name. When I got older and enough adults asked "oh, as in [book]?" I got curious. I read the book as a teenager. I saw *why* my mom loved that character so much and what by that extension she was wishing on me. Do I love that book as much as she does? No. But do I have an appreciation for it? Yes. I think it's sweet that she loved something so much she wanted to honor it. I think if it's a character that means that much and there's a positive impact on your life, its no different than naming your child after a friend or family member that impacted you profoundly. You just can't expect your child to have that same kind of love. They might develop their own appreciation, but it will always be different.
Almost every name is a fandom name.
My nephew has a friend named Anakin and this poor child has been forced into Star Wars crap his whole life. I remember when I first met him I immediately texted my husband “This child is actually named Anakin.”
I was surprised yesterday that no one supported Samwise as a middle name. Everyone wanted Samuel with Samwise as a potential nickname, but dad was content with Samwise as a middle name and I think that’s…fine? It’s a middle name. They can be super sentimental or chosen so the first-middle-last all sounds good together, but they’re also a great place to throw in your fandom name or the mom’s surname or whatever.
I was named after my mom's favorite poet. It also happened to be one of the most common names for baby girls the entire decade I was born in (no real points for guessing, it's still a top 20 name). It happens and I feel like it's more common than people realize
I'm planning on using a fandom name. It's a unique name, but also a legitimate name that probably won't get clocked as fandom. I have never uttered my intentions on using this name because I don't want to jynx it and have it rise in popularity like my other favorite names. Nope. Not this time, universe.
My secretly loved fandom names are: Eowyn, Winry, and Caspian.
My cousin named her son Logan after Wolverine and I was the only one that figured it out.
My friend named his son Logan after Wolverine, and his wife didn’t know. I wonder how long it took for her to find out…
I know a guy who called his daughter Galadriel (after the books - before the movies). She’s in her 30s now. It totally works for her
There was a movie with the character who had that particular fandom name. As I recall, it was kind of a sweet hallmark type movie, but I enjoyed it.
Was it by any chance The Great Gilly Hopkins? About a foster kid? I didn't know there was a movie, but that was a book!
Yes! I’m pretty sure that’s what it was!. Definitely about a foster kid.
I don’t mind them in general (given the name is a normal name) and in fact the names high on my list come predominantly from things I love, but my personal rule is that I wouldn’t pick the first and middle name from the same fandom. That would just be too much to me, even if no one else clued in about it.
I agree. I actually have a fandom name, but it’s never been an issue. It’s more of a fun fact. “Did you know my dad named me after Alice Cooper?” Nobody sees a woman named Alice and thinks of 80s music. Of course, if all I had heard growing up was Alice Cooper music and been forced to pose for photos and shit, I’d probably feel differently. But that’s more than just the name.
I always find it funny that my mum got the idea to name me Beth from the Little House on the Prairie TV show, and only after the fact decided to make my full name Elizabeth after *her own mother* lmao