For Father's Day, Storied asks 'Why Do Baby Names Fall Out of Fashion?'

Happy Father's Day! I begin today's holiday celebration with Otherwords on PBS Digital's Storied asking and answering Why Do Baby Names Fall Out of Fashion?

How many Mildreds did you go to school with? If you're under 60 years old, probably none! Mildred may have been a top ten baby name 100 years ago, but today it[']s almost extinct... Why is that??

Dr. B describing the effect of pop culture on the popularity of names reinforces the suitability of this topic for the Sunday entertainment feature. It's also a perfect reason to revisit the conclusion of Social Security's top ten U.S. baby names of 2023 for Mother's Day weekend.

I'm briefly calling attention to the fourth-fastest rising name on the boys list, Cassian. It's the given name of the protagonist of Rogue One and Andor and is thus a Star Wars name. I plan on covering those names for Father's Day weekend.

Follow over the jump for 2023 in Star Wars baby names.

The three names from the Star Wars franchise I featured last year and three years ago all had their best years ever in 2023, beginning with Kylo and Anakin.


Kylo had an even better 2023 than 2022, reaching a new peak in popularity. As the graphic from the Social Security Administration above states: "For 2023, the number of births with name Kylo is 786, which represents 0.043 percent of total male births in 2023. The year when the name Kylo was most popular is also 2023."

Despite being passed by Kylo in 2019, Anakin had its four best years ever, ranking 704th in 2020, 642nd in 2021, 606th, and 543rd in 2022, making 2023 the year when Anakin was most popular with 541 American boys named after the boyhood name of Darth Vader.


The most popular name of the three generations of Skywalkers that earned their popularity from the films was Leia, which saw 1,421 American girls named after the adopted princess of the Organas in 2023, enough to rank the name 211th last year, an all-time high, passing the previous peak in 2022, when the name ranked 256th.

Of course, the most popular Skywalker name is Luke, which was popular well before Episode I: A New Hope. It rose slightly to 31st from 34th last year, tying its 2020 rank of 31st in 2023, but with more boys given the name last year, 7.217, than 2020. While last year was its best this decade, the name's 21-Century peak happened in 2015 at 28th with 10,291 boys given the name of Leia's brother.

That's a wrap for today. Stay tuned to see if I revisit World Crocodile Day, celebrate another environmental day, or post something else entirely.