Named a Child After Kobe Bryant? You’re Not the Only One

Kobe Bean Bryant. Now there's a name.

Some kids are named after family members. Some get the names of characters in great literature; others are given traditional Biblical names.

And the lucky ones? They get named after professional athletes.

The U.S. Social Security Administration tracks all new babies born in the United States, and a little digging through their data turns up statistics on which names are the most popular each year. It may or may not be a surprise, but lots of babies get named after athletes—especially when that particular athlete is having a good year.

Not every popular athlete’s name becomes popular with parents selecting a name, of course—”LaDainian” never cracked the top 1000 boy names, and neither has “LeBron.” Plenty of other names are much too common to tell if the athlete’s rise made any difference—David Robinson couldn’t do much to make “David” more popular, nor could John Stockton do much for his first name. Neither “David” nor “John” was outside the top 20 of boy names when these guys hit the hardwood.

But take a look at this graph that charts the popularity of “Kobe” as a first name. The Y-axis reflects the name’s rank, with 1 being the most popular. “Kobe” cracked the top 1000 of boy names in 1997, the year after Kobe Bryant was drafted into the NBA—and the popularity of his name has risen and fallen directly with his and the Lakers’ success. There’s no escaping it:

Not convinced? Let’s take a look at Carmelo Anthony. Again, the name is unique enough that it’s easy to track, and we see it make the top 1000 list right after Carmelo was drafted. His name didn’t get very high on the list, especially compared to Kobe’s—it never cracked the top 800, even—but there’s no mistaking who brought the name into households across the country.  In Carmelo’s case, the name started to drop in popularity a bit in 2008, but then had a renaissance last year— coinciding with the Denver Nuggets making the Western Conference Finals.

This one may be my favorite: apparently the country got a lot more Shaquilles just as the real Shaq was making his mark. “Shaquille” burst into the top 1000 as Shaquille O’Neal was capping a dominant college stint at LSU. The name reached its peak—surprisingly high, too, at #181 out of all baby boy names—during O’Neal’s rookie season, as he hauled in the Rookie of the Year trophy and was named an All-Star Game starter in just his first year. After that, the name dropped off; perhaps it became too obvious that naming a child Shaquille was naming him after this particular (charismatic, yes, but also gigantic) man.

A name doesn’t have to be completely obscure in order to measure the effect, either. Grant Hill was born with a first name that consistently ranks among the top 200 boy names. It’s easy to forget now that in the mid-90′s Hill took the NBA by storm (and was part of some extremely-memorable Sprite commercials). It may be coincidence, or caused by completely different variables, but the name “Grant” surely saw a spike when Hill was doing his thing. Is it even possible that Grant Hill had as much impact on baby-naming upon entering the league as Kobe Bryant did? Oh yes, he was a big deal—and don’t forget that Kobe was still only the #13 pick in his respective draft.

We’ve only looked at NBA players, and indeed the effect seems to be stronger with NBA players than with MLB or NFL players. Both MLB and NFL teams use more players, which may water down the impact for each name; and, tied to that, individual players tend to have less of an impact on their team’s success than do NBA stars. MLB’s biggest names may just be too common: “Alex” has been a popular boy name for decades, and so didn’t see any boost from A-Rod, nor did Jeter cause a boost for “Derek”. In the NFL, “Peyton” surprisingly didn’t see a popularity spike when Peyton Manning entered the league or won a Super Bowl; same for “Brady”.

Soccer’s got one, though. David Beckham came to the U.S. to play for the L.A. Galaxy in 2007. And in 2008 “Beckham”, as a first name, cracked the top 1000 baby boy names in the United States. Hard to argue with that one.

Naming babies after celebrities isn’t new, but it’s especially risky with professional athletes. A couple bad seasons and suddenly you’ve named your dear child after a total flop—and young Darko or little Kwame may never forgive you for it.

As for Kobe Bryant, well, his story may not be over. He’s still on top of his game, and his Lakers are competitive for the title every season. We’ll see what happens if the Black Mamba brings home another NBA Championship.

There might be a few more baby Kobes running around.