Stranger Things inspired baby names among the most popular this year

Well, they were pretty ordinary names to begin with, but the truth is that some of the character names in Stranger Things went out of fashion in the '80s.

Be honest now, how many women do you know called Joyce that aren't over the age of 25? Exactly. It's the same with Nancy; nobody knows a Nancy that wasn't alive during Charles Haughey's reign as Taoiseach.

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Baby Center published its annual list of popular baby names for 2016 and surprise, surprise, pop culture has influenced the popularity of some of the names. Joyce, named after Winona Ryder's character Joyce Byers, saw a 23% rise in popularity. Meanwhile, Dustin and Nancy went up 32% in popularity whilst Lucas went up 25%, making it the third most popular name for a boy.

Sadly, Barb was the subject of yet another injustice as her name barely registered at all. Elle - short for Eleven - saw a spike in popularity, however nobody's naming their child Hopper. However, in the dog world, Barb and Eleven are much more popular - both names saw a 12% rise in popularity, according to Rover.com.

 

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