Baby names taken from The Walking Dead see a spike in popularity

It’s a longstanding tradition that pop culture influences baby names. Here’s how The Walking Dead fared on the 2016 list of popular baby names.

When the Twilight books and movies were taking the world by storm, a plethora of babies were named Bella and Edward in honor of the much beloved characters. Those names spilled over into the pet world, too, with oodles of dogs and cats named Bella.

The same is true of The Walking Dead. Baby Center just released its annual list of popular baby names, and several names from The Walking Dead universe have found their way onto the list. Carol is a perennial hit, but there has been an 18% spike in babies named Carol this year. While that one might a stretch to attach to The Walking Dead’s Carol, there were other names that are easier to connect to the show. Tyreese was up 48%, and Hershel was up 37%. Notably, both of those characters have met their end on the show, with Tyreese being the most recently departed, but their popularity remains none the less.

Not surprisingly, fans of Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn were responsible for a 35% jump in babies named Harley. The Suicide Squad character was hugely popular and a standalone Harley Quinn movie is already in the pipeline.

Baby names honoring characters from the massive Netflix hit Stranger Things saw the biggest jump on the list, with Dustin and Mike seeing a rise of 32% and 28% respectively. Wynona Ryder’s Joyce Byers may have sparked a jump in babies named Joyce, with that name up 18%.

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• Watch Tales of TWD actress Jillian Bell in Prime Video’s Candy Cane Lane

While it’s always hard to predict whether or not these names are spiking because of these shows is tough, it’s pretty clear that these shows and movies have made an impact. Given the trend, can we expect to see Dwight and Negan climbing the charts next year?