An Alarming Number Of Parents Are Naming Their Children Thanos
Pop culture baby names are nothing new, but for every set of siblings with relatively common names like Luke and Leia, there's a dozen little kids with painfully specific referential names like Khaleesi or Sansa. During the late 2000s, there was an explosion of fandom-inspired baby names like Bella, Edward, and Hermione, but now it seems like Disney-owned properties have taken the throne as the creative inspiration for new parents.
Thanks to a recent study published by OrganicBabyFormula.com (via Comic Book), one of the Marvel inspired baby names growing in popularity is not a hero like Stark, Parker, or even Banner, but instead the name of the person responsible for destroying half of the universe. That's right, people are increasingly naming their babies "Thanos," after the greatest supervillain in all of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
As of publication, Thanos is the ninth-most-popular baby name inspired by Disney-owned characters, which is ridiculously high for a name that immediately elicits negative feelings. The name Thanos is of Greek, masculine origin as a short form of "Athanasios," which translates to "immortal." Unfortunately, the name no longer inspires the strong, historical connotations of its inception, and is instead immediately associated with the biggest bully in the universe. Can you imagine your child coming home to tell you that some punk kid named Thanos was trying to steal their lunch money?
Millennial parents love the Star-Lord
The study revealed the top 30 Disney-owned names, which include evergreen popular names based in culture and history like Jasmine, Finn, Flynn, Ariel, Wanda, Tiana, Sebastian, Kristoff, Belle, and Elsa, but also atypical names like Valkyrie, Kylo, Anakin, and Loki. To be fair, a lot of the Marvel names have origins in Norse or Greek mythology and have existed long before the MCU, but it's truly wild to think that of all names, Thanos managed to break the top 10.
OrganicBabyFormula.com
The most popular name on the list was Quill, the last name of Chris Pratt's character from the "Guardians of the Galaxy" movies. This one came as no surprise, as professional wrestlers (and well-documented superhero superfans) Johnny Gargano and Candice LeRae recently named their own baby the same in honor of the Star-Lord, and the comments on their announcement were filled with other new parents elated that their babies shared the same name. As unconventional as it may sound, a name like Quill makes sense because you're naming a child after a lovable hero. Thanos, on the other hand, sounds like setting up a kid for a self-fulfilling prophecy.
I truly hope that all of the babies named Thanos in the world don't end up like this girl named after a "Harry Potter" character who grew up hating "Harry Potter" despite her parents' obsession with the fandom, because we all know what happens when Thanos gets ticked off at the world...