Some names can define the course of your life, but hopefully that isn’t true for the 200 boys named after Star Wars’ Anakin Skywalker. Anakin is among the Top 1000 baby names in the U.S.
Anakin comes in at No. 957 on the list released by the Social Security Administration. There were 218 babies named Anakin born in 2014. There were also 218 babies each with the names Baylor, Emmey, Judson and Truman.
Of course, Anakin wasn’t the only pop culture inspired name to crack the list. There were also 208 babies named after Rocky (hopefully, their younger siblings aren’t named Rocky II or Rocky III). On the girls side, 368 baby girls were named after Game of Thrones’ Khaleesi, putting the name at No. 755 on the girl list.
The name “Anakin” has to be inspired by Star Wars since there really is no English equivalent name, notes Yahoo Movies. George Lucas did deny that the character was named after British director Ken Annakin. The only other Earth-bound name that is similar to it comes from the Nordic girls’ name Anniken.
While Lucas had the name “Anakin” or “Annakin” in his Star Wars scripts as early as 1974, it didn’t reach a final script until Obi-Wan Kenobi’s ghost mentioned it in Return of the Jedi. Lucas continued using the name for Anakin in the prequels.
In Star Wars, Anakin becomes Darth Vader. While Anakin does redeem himself in the end, let’s hope that all 218 Anakins don’t have to survive burns on Mustufar before realizing that joining the Dark Side is a bad idea.