Baby names are getting stranger thanks to their millennial parents. This trend is highly attributed to millennials' individualistic culture, according to experts.
A new study published in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology found that between 2004 and 2015, American parents are less likely to pick common names for their babies due to "increasing individualism." As per the U.S. Social Security Administration database, 66 percent of boys and 76 percent of girls between 2004 and 2006 had names that didn't belong in the 50 most common names at the time. In 2011 to 2015, those percentages rose to 72 percent for boys and 79 percent for girls.
Nameberry has released the most popular baby names for the first half of 2016. The top 10 most popular names for baby girls are as follows: Olivia, Amelia, Charlotte, Ava, Isla, Arabella, Aurora, Adeline, Isabella and Mia. For the top 10 names for baby boys, the name Ezra claimed the number one spot followed by Asher, Atticus, Declan, Oliver, Milo, Silas, Levi, Wyatt, and Henry.
Research author Jean Twenge, a psychology professor at the San Diego State University and author of the book "Generation Me," said that the tendency to want children to stand out is "even more pronounced now than it was 10 years ago," Time reported. In addition, millennials are known for focusing on the self and are less bothered by social rules and norms.
"They were raised with phrases like, 'you shouldn't care what anyone else thinks of you,' 'you can be anything you want to be,' 'it's good to be different,' 'you have to love yourself first before you love anyone else,'" Twenge added, as quoted by Time. Millennials grew up in a society that celebrates this kind of thinking, so it's natural for them to apply it to baby-naming.
Nameberry's list also included names influenced by pop culture. Ranking at the 48th spot is Khaleesi, which is a Dothraki title carried by Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) in HBO's highly popular fantasy drama series, "Game of Thrones."
Celebrities also play a key role in how babies are named. Many celebrities have given their kids odd names such as Uma Thurman's daughter named Rosalind Arusha Arkadina Altalune Florence Thurman-Busson, or Luna, for short.
Other weird celebrity baby names are Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin's daughter Apple, Sylvester Stallone's Sage Moonblood and Seargeoh, Kim Kardashian and Kanye West's little girl North, and Beyonce and Jay-Z's daughter Blue Ivy, Time listed. Due to the public's obsession with celebrities and fame, it's highly likely that they follow their favorite actors' and actresses' baby-naming practices.
