Hi Duana,
I'm due in a few months. I recently started watching Games of Thrones and love the character Aria. Her name is gorgeous, reminds me of the beautiful Las Vegas casino Aria: both lovely, strong, and memorable. Yesterday, I started watching Pretty Little Liars and one of the main girls is Aria. Again, love the name. But is the name too GOT, PLL..basically too TV? Also, I looked it up online and its ranked #137.... will there be other Aria's in the class? I want her name to be easy to pronounce, have some sort of meaning to me and also unique enough that yeah, she may encounter an Aria here or there but not have 5 of them in her grade. Your thoughts?
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You are a wise woman – it’s not everyone who can recognize a trend while it’s still happening. Because, indeed, Aria/Arya is becoming a thing.
It’s not a huge thing though – it’s not “Ella” big. And even though it is coincidentally on two different TV shows right now, I don’t think it’s indicative of the TV landscape necessarily, given that those two teenage girls are supposed to have lived some 600 years and a real vs. fantasy world apart. I do, however, think the name is lining up with a swing towards A names and a renewed affection towards those which are short yet girly. (I also think your letter is the first time I’ve seen any name compared to a beautiful casino!).
So I do think it’s possible you might – might – run into another Aria in your child’s travels. But this is where the popularity rankings get deceptive. Most rankings are done only once a year, giving a whole twelvemonth of time in which people gestate children and waffle over names and binge-watch series because they’re too big to go out in public anymore – so by the time you name your little bundle, the #137 may have moved way up, especially since it doesn’t account for different spellings.
But then on the other hand, no name is ever going to reach the popularity density of names in the 80s. There’s just a wider spread, and even Aiden (WHY did this fake spelling usurp the correct one?) is still given to fewer children overall than Jason once was.
So, is it foolproof that you’ll protect your kid against another with the same name? Or five in her grade? Not completely. But as many people who are attracted to it will turn away from it for the reasons you list here, so while yours might not be the only Arya in your daughter’s K-8 progressive elementary, you can safely assume she’ll be the only one within her given math group.
Does this help? Let me know!
