David Bowie-related baby names have risen since his death
Since the tragic death of rock star David Bowie in January 2016, Starman-inspired baby names have been on the rise, new stats have found.
According to the Office for National Statistics, the number of boys registered with the name ‘Ziggy’, a reference to Bowie’s highly-acclaimed 1972 album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders From Mars, at birth in England and Wales, rose from 49 to 136 between 2016 and 2021.
Meanwhile, the number of boys registered with the name ‘Bowie’ rose from 35 to 78 during the same timeframe.
Both names also grew in popularity for girls, with 28 girls called ‘Bowie’ and 14 called ‘Ziggy’ in 2021. The name ‘Ezra’ also rose in prominence following George Ezra’s rise to global acclaim, with 1,226 boys registered with the name last year. There is also a possibility that American actor Ezra Miller could have played a part in this rise.
Like Ezra, the number of baby girls named Mabel peaked in 2021 at 885, followed by large increases in 2018 and 2020. This is thought to have been influenced by the singer and songwriter Mabel, whose breakthrough hit ‘Finders Keepers’ reached the Top 10 in 2017, according to the new study.
It seems that Star Wars, Pixar movies and the British TV show Sex Education were also significant cultural influences in the rise of previously less common names.
Meanwhile, it was recently announced that Bowie’s 1971 fourth studio album, Hunky Dory, will be released as a deluxe reissue that will include unreleased home demos, live recordings and other rarities from the formative era.
Last month, Brett Morgen’s David Bowie documentary film Moonage Daydream hit the big screen alongside a companion album featuring previously unheard material, unique mixes created for the film, and dialogue from Bowie.
In a four-star review, Far Out said of David Bowie: Moonage Daydream: “Through music and interviews, we are given a sense of Bowie’s devotion to the persona, his clear distinction between it and his own feelings, and how, with a powerful tone that few can make feel authentic, he designed the character to triumph over the corpse of his previous career and enlighten a world engorged by the perception of freedom. It may sound grandiose, but over the course of this film, we find out that Bowie was often more prophetic than he is given credit for.”
Watch the official trailer below.
