Millennials are opting for more unusual names for their babies, a study has revealed.
Researchers at San Diego State University analysed the names of 358 million babies using the US Social Security Administration database.
The results, published in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology, showed parents are now increasingly choosing uncommon names.
“The tendency to want your kids to stand out is even more pronounced now than it was 10 years ago,” Jean Twenge, a psychology professor at San Diego State University, told TIME.
“They were raised with phrases like: ‘You shouldn’t care what anyone else thinks of you’, ‘You can be anything you want to be’ and ‘It’s good to be different’.”
The statistics showed that 66% of boys and 76% of girls born between 2004 and 2006 had a name that wasn’t in the “most common” list during that time period.
This increased to 72% of boys and 79% of girls born during the period 2011-2015.
Researchers also noticed that boys were more likely to have a common name than girls.
They added that millennials are turning to popular culture, including celebrities and films, to find inspiration for their baby names.
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