Increasingly, American parents are naming their children after major corporate brands, particularily car-model names. A psych prof who’s been studying social security rolls to gather info on child-naming for 25 years says that the 2000 data indicates a sharp uptick in brand-based naming, which he describes as the 21st-century aspirational equivalents of the Victorians who named their daughters Opal and Ruby.
He has found that car models are a popular source of inspiration; 22 girls are registered as having the name Infiniti while 55 boys answer to Chevy and five girls to Celica.
Seven boys were found to have the name Del Monte – after the food company – and no less than 49 boys were called Canon, after the camera.
Designer firms and types of clothing were also well represented, with almost 300 girls recorded with the name Armani, six boys called Timberland and seven boys called Denim.
In some cases it seems something else was on some parents’ minds – six boys were named after Courvoisier cognac.
(via Die Puny Humans)