Star Wars Day: The franchise's influence on baby names

Luke Skywalker is only the third most influential Star Wars character on baby names, new research has revealed.

Star Wars has had a major impact on baby name trends (pictured above)

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Office for National Statistics (ONS) baby name data, analysed by Bitcade – the UK’s largest producer of custom-built arcade machines – reveals how characters from the Star Wars franchise have influenced baby name choices in England and Wales in 2020.

Of the 42 names analysed, 15 featured in the baby name data between 1996-2020 and 12 featured specifically in the 2020 list.

The data revealed these names are the most influential on baby name trends:

STAR WARS RANK (2020)NAMECHARACTERGENDER2020 RANK2020 COUNT
1ROSEROSE TICOF61803
2FINNFINNM73757
3LUKELUKE SKYWALKERM109544
4OWENOWEN LARSM132418
5REXCAPTAIN REXM143392
6KYLOKYLO RENM252189
7LEIAPRINCESS LEIAF382115
8LANDOLANDO CALRISSIANM85634
9OBIOBI-WAN KENOBIM1,05126
10REYREYF1,44921
11MACEMACE WINDUM1,54815
12CORNELIUSCORNELIUS EVEZANM2,4048
n/a*PADMEPADME AMIDALAF:0
n/a*HANHAN SOLOM:0
n/a*BRENMAJOR BREN DERLINM:0

* None in 2020, but name did feature between 1996-2019

Looking at the most recent year, Rose (Tico) topped the list, with 803 baby girls being given the moniker in 2020. Finn and Luke (Skywalker) followed, with 757 and 544 baby boys being given the names respectively in the same year.

Owen (Lars), (Captain) RexKylo (Ren), (Princess) LeiaLando (Calrissian), Obi(-wan Kenobi), ReyMace (Windu), and Cornelius (Evezan) also featured in the 2020 list.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Unsurprisingly, the likes of Darth Vader, Chewbacca, Jabba the Hutt, Yoda, and Jar Jar Binks did not feature at all.

Other factors also affect the trends of baby names. Click here to find out how nature inspires choice of baby names

Jack England, Director at Bitcade commented:

“Here at Bitcade, our arcade cabinets have a massive library of retro games with around 2,900 games pre-loaded, but the Star Wars design is amongst our most popular cabinet styles overall.

When it comes to choosing a baby name, inspiration can come from anywhere, so with this in mind – and Star Wars Day just around the corner (4th May) – we analysed baby name data from Office for National Statistics (ONS) to discover how Star Wars characters have influenced recent baby name choices in England and Wales.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

 “Our research found that Rose (Tico), Finn, and Luke (Skywalker) had the most significant influence in 2020. Owen (Lars), (Captain) Rex, Kylo (Ren), (Princess) Leia, Lando (Calrissian), Obi(-wan Kenobi), Rey, Mace (Windu), and Cornelous (Evezan) all also featured in the 2020 list”.

As well as looking at the 2020 figures in isolation, Bitcade also discovered the franchise’s influence on baby names over the last 20 years (years spanning 2001-2020).

The data revealed the following names are the most influential on baby name trends over the previous decades:

STAR WARS RANK

(2001-2020)

NAMECHARACTERGENDER2020 COUNTTOTAL COUNT (2001-2020)
1LUKELUKE SKYWALKERM54444,816
2OWENOWEN LARSM41825,118
3ROSEROSE TICOF80313,867
4FINNFINNM75710,739
5REXCAPTAIN REXM3922,802
6LEIAPRINCESS LEIAF1151,774
7KYLOKYLO RENM189483
8OBIOBI-WAN KENOBIM26229
9CORNELIUSCORNELIUS EVEZANM8145
10MACEMACE WINDUM15128
11REYREYF2193
12HANHAN SOLOM084
13LANDOLANDO CALRISSIANM3456
=14PADMEPADME AMIDALAF03
=14BRENMAJOR BREN DERLINM03

Looking at the 20-year duration, Luke (Skywalker) topped the list, with 44,816 baby boys being given the moniker between 2001-2020. Owen (Lars) and Rose (Tico) followed, with 25,118 baby boys and 13,867 baby girls being given the names respectively in the same duration.

Finn, (Captain) Rex, (Princess) LeiaKylo (Ren), Obi(-wan Kenobi), Cornelius (Evezan), Mace (Windu), Rey, Han (Solo), Lando (Calrissian), Padme (Amidala), and Bren (Derlin) also featured.