Pokemon Go now influencing baby names!

Washington: It won’t be long before people invite you over to meet their baby ‘Pikachu’ as parents in the US are increasingly naming their children after characters from Pokemon Go, according to new data.

The world has gone crazy for Pokemon Go -- the widely popular location-based augmented reality game -- but you might not realise just how crazy.

Babycenter a pregnancy and parenting website that tracks baby name trends has noticed a sudden spike in popularity for Pokemon Go-related names. According to Baby Center, an increasing number of newborns are going to grow up with first names like Roselia, Ash, Eevee and Onyx -- all Pokemon characters.

The US pregnancy and parenting website says around half of its users are playing the game regularly right now. Eevee has climbed 1,377 spots on the list of popular girls’ names in the last year alone.

But the sudden climb of Onyx is even more impressive -- leapfrogging 2,184 spots on the girls’ list. Onyx was all but unheard of for a century, then got off the ground in the ‘90s around the time Pokemon was first introduced before spiking very recently.

Additionally, the names Star and Ivy are suddenly popular, perhaps inspired by the Pokemon Go creatures Starmie and Ivysaur. The names of Pokemon creatures yet to appear in the game have seen a boost too. Roselia, for example, is up a whopping 5,859 spots from last year. And Ash, Pokemon’s main character, is up 248 spots.

Linda Murray, Babycenter’s editor in chief, told BuzzFeed that she is not surprised people are finding inspiration in Pokemon.

PTI