Parents Are Naming Their Kids After ‘Spider-Man’ and ‘Encanto’ Characters

Parents get inspiration for baby names from the world around them. Sure, you can go the traditional route or come up with a unique name totally on your own. But pop culture, current events and hit shows and movies have made certain names more popular. BabyCenter's baby naming experts analyzed the names of more than 400,000 babies born to BabyCenter parents in 2022. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, new parents' outlook on the world seems to be more positive with utopian names like Miracle, Alora (which means "dreamer") and Destiny being on the rise. That's also true of celestial names like Nova ("star"), Aurora (a nod to the northern lights) and Lyla ("night beauty"). This year, nature-inspired baby names associated with flowers, trees, and animals are all on the rise like Meadow (up 87 spots), Iris (up 24 spots), Juniper (up 40 spots) and Ivy (up 11 spots). On the other hand, there was a decline in names associated with celebrities who made headlines for all the wrong reasons last year like Will, Jada, Chris, Amber, Johnny, Elon, and Kanye.

BabyCenter also looked into some of the year's biggest releases from Disney and Marvel to see how their cult-like following has impacted parents’ decisions to name their children. It turns out, parents loved Spider-Man: No Way Home and the Oscar-winning animated movie Encanto as the inspiration behind their baby names. Following the release of both movies late last year, there was a sharp spike in babies registered with names of popular characters from the films.

See below the Spider-Man and Encanto character names that have soared in popularity in 2022:

The lead character’s name, Mirabel, catapulted up 500 spots.

Up 134 spots.

Up 85 spots.

Up 93 spots.

Even the name Bruno, which had been falling in popularity since 2016, rebounded 50 spots since the film’s catchy song “We Don't Talk About Bruno" became a viral sensation. It turns out that people do talk about Bruno!

The name "Zendaya" jumped up 375 spots this year and is now in the top 500. The name has been slowly rising since this beloved star came onto the scene in 2012, but it sharply spiked in 2022 with the release of Spider-Man: No Way Home, which brought a steady stream of press coverage for the movie and Zendaya’s relationship with her co-star and own personal Spider-Man, Tom Holland.

Up 15 spots.

Up 126 spots.

Up 1,294 spots.

Up 47 spots.

Up 532 spots.

Up 65 spots.