More Parents Naming Their Children After Twilight Characters?

It's not easy going through life with an unremarkable name like "Dave Chen." I know three Dave Chens personally, one of whom works in the same office as me, making e-mail mix-ups a frequent occurrence.

But despite reservations about my own name, I can take comfort in the fact that I wasn't named after a Twilight character. Recently released data from the Social Security Administration (via The New York Post) indicates that the number of children named after Twilight characters might be on the rise.

Jacob remains the most popular male name in the United States, but that's been true for the past 11 years, so we can safely say that Taylor Lautner's on screen prowess did not directly cause this (although it may have given it an even stronger lead). On the female side, we have Isabella, which this year replaced Emma as the most popular female name in the U.S. The character of Isabella is played by Kristen Stewart in the Twilight films.

Still, that could just be a coincidence, right? After all, Isabella was always a popular name, having been one the top 10 most popular girl's names for the past six years.

Not so fast. The most damning evidence is the rise of the name Cullen as a boy's name (as in Edward Cullen from the Cullen vampire family). Cullen showed the largest gain out of all boy's names, shooting from 782nd to 485th place. Edward Cullen is played by Robert Pattinson, and he is arguably the only well-known character in the United States that bears that name. Coincidence?

What has been your experience, readers? Know any recent newborns who now have to bear the scarlet letter of Twilight love for the rest of their lives?