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Prince William and Kate's little George, Twilight characters Bella and Jacob, and Game of Thrones's feisty Arya - they've all influenced new parents' baby name choices over the past year.

And now we can add Simon Cowell's son Eric and Disney's fictional Frozen character Elsa to the list.

The beautiful name Elsa has shot up to number 88 on the popular names list, a massive 243 places higher than last year, showing parents have been inspired by Disney's popular character.

Sarah Barrett, Managing Editor for BabyCentre, said: "Whilst the film's popular heroine is called Anna, Elsa offers a more unique name and is also a strong female role model. Elsa is the ice queen but she sees the error of her ways and is shown to be a sensitive, but strong and confident character. Just in the way the name Arya from Game of Thrones increased in popularity in 2013, films are hugely influential."

Disney UK's Vice President Anna Hill said the company were thrilled so many parents had been inspired by the movie.

"We're delighted that Elsa is a popular name for babies and it's lovely to hear that for many families, it is actually their siblings who have chosen it. We've been bowled over by the response to Frozen - it's now the fifth biggest film of all time and families are really connecting with Elsa's fight to overcome her fears and the powerful strength of the family bond which has helped her to achieve this."

Another example of movies influencing baby name choices is Wolverine. The name Logan, featured in the film, rose 33 places to number 14.


Celebrities are also continuing to inspire us. In the past, we've seen Kourtney Kardashian's Mason, Victoria and David Beckham's Harper and Gwen Stefani's Kingston influence mums and dads. This year it's Simon Cowell.

After the X Factor mogul and girlfriend Lauren Silverman named their son Eric in February 2014, the name shot 284 places up the popular names list to number 118. Simon chose the name after his father, Eric.

Interestingly, George has dropped down the chart as the little Prince approaches his first birthday. Now sitting at number 13 19 in the popularity table, it's at its lowest point since 2000. Maybe new parents reckon there will be numerous Georges in their son's school year already, thanks to Royal Baby Fever?

The data collected from more than 30,000 new parents is just for the first six months of the year and with plenty of celebrity babies due before December (Billie Faiers, Mila Kunis, Rachel Bilson etc), who knows how it will all change!


Another popularity list from BabyCenter (over 555,000 baby names)

The fact that Anna didn’t make the big leap that Elsa did likely doesn’t reflect parents’ preference for one sister over another, but rather the fact that Anna was already a very popular pick before Frozen came onto the scene. As for Olaf, well, it seems even the world’s cutest snowman can’t seem to break that Norse name into the top 400.

"These are creative, strong character names that are giving moms some fresh, new baby-name options, especially Elsa," said Linda Murray, BabyCenter Global Editor in Chief. "We've seen Emma in the top 10 for quite some time now, and Elsa is a modern alternative that our moms are gravitating toward."

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen pop culture crazes spill over into baby name picks in recent years: The Hunger Games, Fifty Shades of Grey and even the reality show Duck Dynasty have all sparked trends.

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