Parents name babies after the Instagram filters they put on pictures of their babies
In the never-ending high-school reunion that is post-Instagram American life, it’s not having the baby that matters, it’s making sure that people you haven’t seen in decades know you had a baby and yes, it is adorable, thanks, my life is going great. So it’s not terribly surprising that some parents have decided to just combine the two things that give their life meaning by naming their children after Instagram filters.
It’s not a couple of isolated instances, either: Mashable cites a report from popular parenting website Babycenter.com which claims that “Lux”—presumably a tribute to the Instagram setting and not the late Cramps frontman—has risen 75 percent in popularity as a boy’s name since last year. Meanwhile, boys and girls are increasingly being named after Instagram filters: Ludwig (boys, up 42 percent), Amaro (boys, up 26 percent), Juno (girls, 30 percent), and Valencia (girls, 26 percent) are all trending amongst new parents who really care about things that are trending. (“X-Pro II” and “1977” are still outliers, but give it a couple of years.)
Other trends cited in the survey are gender-neutral names, along with names inspired by Empire, video games, celestial bodies, and, um, weed (“Bud,” “Blaze,” and “Haze” are all apparently on the rise). “Katniss,” thankfully, is on the way out, leaving the elementary-aged daughters of YA enthusiasts to commiserate with the Bellas and Jacobs in the grade above.