People Are Naming Their Kids "Barbie" Now in Latest Movie/TV Life-Imitating-Art Craze

You knew it was bound to happen. After Barbie's massive $1 billion worldwide box-office success — with people opining their love for the Greta Gerwig–directed flick led by Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, going so far as to say that the film moved them to tears — there are now people who want to name their kids after the wildly popular Mattel doll.

While some may say that individuals naming their child after a piece of plastic that was created as a celebration of femininity, it should hardly come as a surprise.

There is probably someone out there who named their child Grimlock because they couldn't think there would be anything cooler than the marriage of a dinosaur that is also a robot.

And while it's probably hard to find any evidence that there's a Grimlock Johnson just graduating college or quietly hating his office job where he's forced to punch in data into Salesforce all day, there is evidence to suggest there are throngs of folks seriously considering naming their kids "Barbie."

There was a 603 percent spike in interest for the name, according to Nameberry, which reported that search results for the name exploded since April of 2023.

Folks who sympathized with the plight of the Kens in the film may be happy to know that there's been an uptick in folks who wanted to bestow the title of "Ken" and "Kenneth" as well: 293 percent, actually. Sure, it's not getting as much love as Barbie, but that increase definitely seems "Kenough."

There have been a slew of other popular TV shows and movies that have inspired folks to name their children after popular characters in recent years as well. Here are some notable examples.

It was reported that in 2018, 560 moms decided to name their child "Khaleesi" — named after Daenerys, the young mother of dragons in the wildly popular HBO series based on George R.R. Martin's book series "A Song of Ice and Fire."

In the show, Daenerys comes from a line of incestuously insane who routinely procreated with one another and commanded mythical creatures to burn people alive. She dies at around 23 or 24 years old, after being murdered by one of her relatives, upon succumbing to madness herself.

Ryan Gosling strikes again: the London, Canada native's character from the melodrama based on Nichols Sparks's book of the same name inspired a slew of moms to name their kids after a guy who was named after a guy who put a bunch of animals on a boat. Gosling's Noah, on the other hand, got into frustrating and oftentimes toxic relationship squabbles with Rachel McAdams.

Naming your kid after a Harry Potter character in 2023 would probably get your baby put on some kind of hate-watch list, but before J.K. Rowling was labeled as an enemy of the trans movement, there were throngs of folks naming their babies after the capable and lovable wizard who ends up with a ginger kid whose last name is Weasley.

Disney is oftentimes considered the God of media companies, so it's only appropriate that the company's trademark character carries a name of Hebraic origins that means pretty much just that.

It should be noted to that without failure, every time the Mouse debuts a new Disney princess, there are almost always throngs of parents who name their children after them: Elsa from Frozen, Jasmine from Aladdin, and even someone who said they named their baby Maleficent.

Turns out there were a bunch of folks who thought that naming their child after a person who witnessed the horrific deaths of their parents and then ended up becoming a serial killer was a good idea. Maybe they admired Michael C. Hall's depiction of a man working his darndest to control a part of his personality he couldn't control to try and lead a good life?

This TV show/movie name inspiration can either mean that the parent in question decided to name their kid after the main villain of an HBO series that many argued ruined an entire generation of people, or that they had an affinity for a blood-drenched telekinetic with mommy issues.

Of course, none of the aforementioned names can hold a candle to what Elon Musk initially decided to name the kid he had with pop star Grimes.

Have you ever come across someone who was named after their parents' favorite movie or TV show?