Star Wars Day [May 4th] – The Franchise’s Influence on Baby Names

Based on 2020 ONS Baby Name Data for England and Wales

Luke Skywalker is only the third most influential Star Wars character on baby names, new research has revealed.

Office for National Statistics (ONS) baby name data, analysed by Bitcade – the UK’s largest producer of custom-built arcade machines – reveals how characters from the Star Wars franchise have influenced baby name choices in England and Wales in 2020.

Of the 42 names analysed, 15 featured in the baby name data between 1996-2020 and 12 featured specifically in the 2020 list.

The data revealed the following names as the most influential on recent baby name trends:

STAR WARS RANK (2020)	NAME	CHARACTER	GENDER	2020 RANK	2020 COUNT
1	ROSE	ROSE TICO	F	61	803
2	FINN	FINN	M	73	757
3	LUKE	LUKE SKYWALKER	M	109	544
4	OWEN	OWEN LARS	M	132	418
5	REX	CAPTAIN REX	M	143	392
6	KYLO	KYLO REN	M	252	189
7	LEIA	PRINCESS LEIA	F	382	115
8	LANDO	LANDO CALRISSIAN	M	856	34
9	OBI	OBI-WAN KENOBI	M	1,051	26
10	REY	REY	F	1,449	21
11	MACE	MACE WINDU	M	1,548	15
12	CORNELIUS	CORNELIUS EVEZAN	M	2,404	8
n/a*	PADME	PADME AMIDALA	F	:	0
n/a*	HAN	HAN SOLO	M	:	0
n/a*	BREN	MAJOR BREN DERLIN	M	:	0

* None in 2020, but name did feature between 1996-2019

Looking at the most recent year, Rose (Tico) topped the list, with 803 baby girls being given the moniker in 2020. Finn and Luke (Skywalker) followed, with 757 and 544 baby boys being given the names respectively in the same year.

Owen (Lars), (Captain) Rex, Kylo (Ren), (Princess) Leia, Lando (Calrissian), Obi(-wan Kenobi), Rey, Mace (Windu), and Cornelius (Evezan) also featured in the 2020 list. While no babies were given the names Padme (Amidala), Han (Solo), and Bren (Derlin) in 2020, these monikers did feature in the years spanning 1996 and 2019.

Unsurprisingly, the likes of Darth Vader, Chewbacca, Jabba the Hutt, Yoda, and Jar Jar Binks did not feature at all.

Jack England, director at Bitcade commented:

“Here at Bitcade, our arcade cabinets have a massive library of retro games with around 2,900 games pre-loaded, but the Star Wars design is amongst our most popular cabinet styles overall. When it comes to choosing a baby name, inspiration can come from anywhere, so with this in mind – and Star Wars Day just around the corner (4^th May) – we analysed baby name data from Office for National Statistics (ONS) to discover how Star Wars characters have influenced recent baby name choices in England and Wales.

“Our research found that Rose (Tico), Finn, and Luke (Skywalker) had the most significant influence in 2020. Owen (Lars), (Captain) Rex, Kylo (Ren), (Princess) Leia, Lando (Calrissian), Obi(-wan Kenobi), Rey, Mace (Windu), and Cornelous (Evezan) all also featured in the 2020 list”.

As well as looking at the 2020 figures in isolation, Bitcade also discovered the franchise’s influence on baby names over the last 20 years (years spanning 2001-2020).

The data revealed the following names as the most influential on baby name trends over previous decades:

STAR WARS RANK(2001-2020)	NAME	CHARACTER	GENDER	2020 COUNT	TOTAL COUNT (2001-2020)
1	LUKE	LUKE SKYWALKER	M	544	44,816
2	OWEN	OWEN LARS	M	418	25,118
3	ROSE	ROSE TICO	F	803	13,867
4	FINN	FINN	M	757	10,739
5	REX	CAPTAIN REX	M	392	2,802
6	LEIA	PRINCESS LEIA	F	115	1,774
7	KYLO	KYLO REN	M	189	483
8	OBI	OBI-WAN KENOBI	M	26	229
9	CORNELIUS	CORNELIUS EVEZAN	M	8	145
10	MACE	MACE WINDU	M	15	128
11	REY	REY	F	21	93
12	HAN	HAN SOLO	M	0	84
13	LANDO	LANDO CALRISSIAN	M	34	56
=14	PADME	PADME AMIDALA	F	0	3
=14	BREN	MAJOR BREN DERLIN	M	0	3

Looking at the 20-year duration, Luke (Skywalker) topped the list, with 44,816 baby boys being given the moniker between 2001-2020. Owen (Lars)and Rose (Tico) followed, with 25,118 baby boys and 13,867 baby girls being given the names respectively in the same duration.

Finn, (Captain) Rex, (Princess) Leia, Kylo (Ren), Obi(-wan Kenobi), Cornelius (Evezan), Mace (Windu), Rey, Han (Solo), Lando (Calrissian), Padme (Amidala), and Bren (Derlin) also featured.