Washington - Picking a name: It's just one of those things you gotta do when you bring life into this world.
But where can you find inspiration to give your baby a super cool name? I'm talking celebrity-Apple-Blue-Ivy-North level cool? Why, television, of course! And, specifically, the creations of TV producer-director-writer Shonda Rhimes.
Americans are increasingly turning to television, Netflix and sports for creative ideas for what to name their wee ones, according to online parenting source BabyCenter, which released its list of the most popular baby names in 2014 this week.
The list, which combines similarly-spelled names, comes from data submitted to the site by the parents of more than 400 000 babies. The site's 2013 baby name list included many of the same names on the Social Security Administration's 2013 list of new baby names.
Television inspired 20 percent of names in the site's database this year, with big increases in names ripped from Rhimes's shows, such as Arizona from Grey's Anatomy (a 35 percent jump) and Huck from Scandal (a 44 percent jump).
The popularity of Callie (Grey's Anatomy) increased 30 percent, and Fitzgerald (Scandal) jumped 56 percent. Granted, such names don't come anywhere close to the top 100, but how many Arizonas do you know, really?
Then there's the name Jeter, which increased 82 percent, the same year the baseball player Derek Jeter retired.
Even Idina showed up in the database this year, after being absent last year. Perhaps that baby girl was named after Idina Menzel, who sang the title track for the film Frozen, a song that America's children cannot stop singing.
The top 10 names are mostly the tried-and-true that have been among top picks for years, although hints of television inspiration do lurk there, including Zoe (House Of Cards) and Olivia (Scandal).
Here were the top girl names for 2014:
Sophia
Emma
Olivia
Ava
Isabella
Mia
Zoe
Lily
Emily
Madelyn
And the most popular boy names for 2014:
Jackson
Aiden
Liam
Lucas
Noah
Mason
Ethan
Caden
Jacob
Logan
“This year's list shows Jackson has staying power and is not a one-hit wonder, and Sophia is arguably the Jennifer of its generation with five consecutive number one spots,” Linda Murray, BabyCenter global editor, said in a release.
Washington Post