Star Wars: Anakin Is One Of The Top 1,000 Baby Names In The U.S.

Who wants to name their kid after pop culture’s most famous mass-murdering child slayer?

Quite a number of people, actually. According to the Social Security Administrations’ annual list of the top 1,000 baby names in the United States, “Anakin” was the 957th most popular baby name of 2014. Anakin, of course, is the first name Anakin Skywalker, the young Jedi who eventually became Darth Vader in Star Wars.

The name “Anakin” was never spotted prior to Star Wars’ pre-production, when creator George Lucas invented the character and name for his original trilogy. Lucas originally planned to give the to name Anakin’s son, before choosing Luke instead. The name Anakin was only mentioned once in the original trilogy, then faded into obscurity. That all changed in 1999, however, when Anakin was put in the spotlight for Lucas’ Star Wars prequel trilogy. That series of films starred Anakin Skywalker as the tragic hero who fell to the Dark Side and became Darth Vader—murdering a couple thousand Jedi, Padawon, and Younglings along the way.

No one is quite sure where George Lucas cooked up the name Anakin, but it’s clear that it made its mark on the cultural conscious. And as Star Wars’ exposure continues to grow under Disney’s ownership, we wouldn’t be surprised if the names “Kylo,” “Rey” or “Phasma” made the list soon. Heck, BB-8 isn’t that much of a stretch at this point.

Do you think Anakin makes for a good name? Let us know in the comments!

For a release schedule on all of Disney and Lucasfilm’s upcoming Star Wars movies, head to ComicBook.com’s franchise movie database.

Via Yahoo Movies