Harry Potter Names Jump In Popularity As Fans Reach Parenthood

Harry Potter fans cause a jump in the popularity of Harry Potter names as they reach parenthood.

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We’ve come a long way since the first Harry Potter book was released in 1997, 19 years later fans are grown up and having their own families. Wizard-named families. According to Social Security Administration data examined by MooseRoots, names from the Harry Potter series are gaining popularity.

The trend started in the early 2000’s, presumably with older fans picking favorite names from J.K. Rowling’s beloved book characters. Let’s take a look at some of the names that are possibly trending due to Pottermania, keeping in mind that the books came out from 1997 to 2007 and the films from 2001 to 2011.

Let’s start with transfiguration professor Minerva McGonagall, a very old-fashioned name. While not particularly popular in the US, there was a small increase in 2007 when Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was published, Order of the Phoenix came out in movie theaters, and Warner Brothers announced plans for Wizarding World in Orlando.

Viktor Krum is the Bulgarian Quidditch-playing wizard who tried to woo Hermione in the Goblet of Fire. There were some popularity increases in the U.S. and United Kingdom when the Goblet of Fire in book (2000) and film (2005) form were released.

Lily Potter was Harry’s mother, sacrificing herself to save her infant son. The name had declined in the US until 1977 when the trend started to reverse. Since 2001, Lily has ranked in the top 100 with a rank of 15th in 2011, the year that the final Harry Potter film came out.

While technically short for Ginevra, we only saw her referred to as Ginny Weasley throughout the series. Ginny spiked in popularity in 2006 at the height of Potter fandom with the recent release of Goblet of Fire on film and the announcement of the release date for the last book.

Sirius is a decidedly unusual and uncommon name. While more recently in 2014 only 24 boys were named Sirius, there was a bit of popularity increase after the 2004 release of Order of the Phoenix where Sirius was shown to be a true hero.

Hermione Granger is another old fashioned name and was quite popular in the US around World War I (1914-1918). The name had a popularity boom in 2003 when the Order of the Phoenix was published and fans eargerly awaited the arrival of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban on the big screen.

Another Weasley name up for examination is Ron, Harry’s trusted friend. In the US Ron has declined in the naming ranks after it hit its peak in the 1960’s. Over in England and Wales though, there were spikes in the number of Rons from 1999 to 2009, especially when the films started during the peak of the books.

And finally we come to Harry Potter, the hero of our series. There are numerous famous Harrys from Harry S. Truman to Harry Houdini to Prince Harry in the UK. It’s a bit of an old fashioned sounding plain name and was popular in the US about a century ago, declining in popularity since then. In the UK though, Harry was number 1 in 2011 and 2012, maybe due to the draw of both a prince in real life and a hero in wizard life.

Next: Is There A Link Between Fantastic Beasts and Cursed Child?

I will guess that nobody wanted to name their baby with a particular name starting with V. Hopefully all these wizard name inspired children grow up with fewer dangers, but just as much fun as the characters and Harry Potter love as their parents. We’ll have to see how Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them does when it comes out and keep an eye open for baby Newts.

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