May 21st @ Free Times Café

In a bid to keep these missives contemporary and up to date with the latest important information, and as a public service, I am writing today to let folks know that the fastest rising boy’s name in the U.S last year was Kylo. The name has now entered the coveted top 1,000 boy’s names and occupies number 901 due to an amazing 2,368 point jump in popularity (I know I make stuff up all the time but even I couldn’t make this up).

One explanation for the rise is that Kylo is the name of a character in the latest Star Wars series and apparently many Americans (and probably Canadians too) look to Star Wars when deciding what moniker to saddle their children with for the rest of their lives. What makes this particular name significant however is that Kylo is a villain in the series, not a hero. I don’t recall a similar jump in the choice of Darth as a name for boys after the first set of Star Wars films.

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