This Designer Fashion Brand Is One Of The Fastest-Rising Baby Names For Boys And Girls

"Parents are choosing names that have power, hope and status.”
jin chu ferrer via Getty Images

As the famous tagline goes, “J’adore Dior.” Well, it turns out that’s how many American parents feel about Dior as a baby name.

New data from the Social Security Administration shows the baby name Dior got a major boost in popularity in 2020. The name rose a full 434 spots on the list of most popular names for baby boys ― from No. 1,302 in 2019 to 868 in 2020. That makes it the name with the seventh-biggest jump on the boys list in 2020.

Meanwhile, Dior also saw an increase in popularity for baby girls. The name jumped up 108 spots from No. 607 in 2019 to No. 499 last year. In 2020, 605 newborn girls and 258 newborn boys were named Dior.

Of course, the name Dior is most commonly associated with the French luxury fashion house Christian Dior SE. Thus, it falls into the category of fashion and beauty brand names parents are giving their babies ― like Chanel (386 girls in 2020), Armani (853 boys and 615 girls) and Cartier (185 boys and 21 girls).

A model walks the runway during the Christian Dior Spring Summer 2018 show as part of Paris Fashion Week on Jan. 22, 2018.
Stephane Cardinale - Corbis via Getty Images
A model walks the runway during the Christian Dior Spring Summer 2018 show as part of Paris Fashion Week on Jan. 22, 2018.

“Dior is the latest in a long list of luxury brands to cross over to baby names,” Laura Wattenberg, founder of namerology.com and author of “The Baby Name Wizard,” told HuffPost. “Armani is the current leader of the pack, but the phenomenon isn’t new. For instance, the name Royce rose in the 1920s as Rolls-Royce automobiles became a symbol of the high life.”

BabyNames.com founder Jennifer Moss told HuffPost she believes the hardship of the pandemic has inspired many parents to select names with a more aspirational vibe.

“What we’ve found is that the pandemic has had an influence on baby naming. Parents are choosing names that have power, hope, and status,” Moss explained. “Dior ― identified with the high-end designer ― would fall into the latter category. It instills a ‘brand,’ so to speak, of status and power.”

A tourist walks past a window display featuring a photograph of actress Jennifer Lawrence at a Dior store in Aspen, Colorado.
Robert Alexander via Getty Images
A tourist walks past a window display featuring a photograph of actress Jennifer Lawrence at a Dior store in Aspen, Colorado.

On a similarly aspirational note, many believe the name Dior derives from the French “d’or,” which means “golden.” Dior has made some appearances in the pop culture realm.

Sean Love Combs aka Diddy named his first child ― a son with designer Misa Hylton-Brim ― Justin Dior Combs. Justin was born in 1993 and went on to attend UCLA on a football scholarship. Interestingly, Diddy later had a son named Christian.

The TLC show “Doubling Down with the Derricos” follows a family with 14 children whose names all begin with the letter D ― including a son named Dior Derrico. And the Tolkien universe also includes a character named Dior.

“The baby name Dior has been occasionally heard since the 1980s, but recent inspirations such as the musician Iann Dior and the Pop Smoke song ‘Dior’ have led to a big jump in popularity,” Wattenberg said. “The baby name J’Adore has also been used since 1999 when the Dior brand introduced a perfume by that name.”

Will this fast-rising name reach new heights in 2021? We’ll have to wait until the next round of SSA data to find out.

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