Image: Disney/Lucasfilm
On the one hand, whiny, squealing newborn infants being named after whiny, squealing wannabe Sith Lord Kylo Ren is an oddly appropriate legacy for the character. On the other, whyyyyyy?
Last week the Social Security Administration soothing sounds of Figrin D’an and the Modal Nodes’ Cantina theme — are responsible for making Kylo the fastest-growing name in the U.S.
According to the data, 238 parents named their sons after the new Star Wars villain last year, although 14,569 opted for Benjamin (which ranked just below the superior name of James so suck it, Bens!), some of which presumably could’ve been inspired by Kylo’s real name.
That’s not as many as people naming their daughters Khaleesi — 370, a depressing number that’s, also depressingly, up from previous years — but still, that’s a lot of little baby Kylos. Too many baby Kylos, arguably.
What if Kylo Ren, as potentially fascinating as he is character-wise, fails to stand the test of time in the same way Anakin Skywalker has? Can you imagine, 30 years from now, all these grown up Kylos running around? What if they hate Star Wars, maybe partially because their nerdy parents thought it was a grand idea to name them after the dude who murders his own father?
I think it’s totally fine for a fannish parent to name their children in honour of something that they love and means a lot to them, but there has to be a line on the level of outlandishness somewhere, right? Ultimately, in true Kylo Ren style, I guess they’re just finishing what 2014’s parents started.
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10 responses to “An Alarming Number Of Parents Named Their Sons ‘Kylo’ Last Year”
This is what middle names are for, people. Kids don’t need this baggage.
268 babies named Kylo? That’s what…. 0.0005% of babies born in the US that year.
Just curious, is this a new thing? or did we always have idiots who named their kid “Han” or “Obiwan” or whatever the latest nerd movie was…
Also as stated above, 238 is not that high a number…probably less than the people who try to distinguish themselves by spelling a traditional name in a random new way.
Don’t think there was enough kids called Lando.
meh it will probably be less awkward than people naming their kids Cloud or Yuna
We need to go deeper. How many babies are being named Rey?
(Looks forward to a sudden flourishing of Baze and Chirrut in 2017 … and Jyn, of course )
Kylo sounds a bit bogan in a certain Aussie accent.
Possibly because it sounds like a plausible “Aussification” of “Kyle”.
Indeed.
I got to try find it, but recently news.com.au had an article on how people with Bogan sounding names were more likely to be over looked for jobs because of their name.