The wildly popular HBO show "Game of Thrones" is in its final season, and two fan-favorite characters appear to be an inspiration to new parents.
The New York Times recently profiled several parents who named their children after characters from the show. Particularly popular were names taken from two of the series' female leads, Daenerys Targaryen and Arya Stark.
That trend appears to be continuing. Data on the most popular baby names of 2018 just released by the Social Security Administration shows that more parents than ever are giving their children names that match the two protagonists.
One of Daenerys' many titles on "Game of Thrones" is "Khaleesi," which loosely translates into "queen" in the fictional language of the Dothraki, a fierce horse-riding warrior tribe that Daenerys comes to rule.
Khaleesi was also the 549th most popular name for newborn girls in 2018.
Bloomberg editor Nick Turner pointed out in a tweet that "Khaleesi is now a more popular girls' name than Gloria, Anne, or Julie."
Khaleesi broke into the top 1,000 names for baby girls in 2014 and has steadily grown in popularity since, with 560 newborn girls being given the Dothraki title for queen in 2018:
Despite the popularity of Khaleesi, neither Daenerys — the character's actual given name in the show — nor the commonly used nickname "Dany" appear in the top 1,000 names for baby girls, according to the SSA.
The growth in popularity of the name Arya has been even more dramatic. In "Game of Thrones," Arya Stark is the younger daughter of Ned Stark, an early protagonist on the show. Over the eight seasons of the show, Arya escapes her family's enemies, goes to a foreign land and trains to be a deadly shape-shifting assassin, returns home to kill several of those previously-mentioned enemies, and plays a crucial role in the recent battle against the terrifying Night King.
Arya has been among the top 1,000 names for girls since 2010, and has shot up rapidly since "Game of Thrones" debuted in 2011. In 2018, Arya was the 119th most popular name for baby girls, with a whopping 2,545 infants sharing a name with the highborn-girl-turned-assassain:
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