Despite "Go Set a Watchman," Atticus remains a popular name

Emily Temple of Literary Hub spotted an interesting inclusion on a popular-baby-name post: Atticus.

Ten years ago, of course we wouldn’t have blinked at homage being paid to Mr. Finch of To Kill A Mockingbird fame.

But now that we’ve seen an alternate version of him from Go Set a Watchman, it surprises Temple (and likely many others) that so far this year, a baby-name website says that Atticus is the second-most-frequently searched name for boys in the US.

As Salon, which reported on the data, cautions, this doesn’t mean parents are necessarily naming their children Atticus — we have to wait for the once-yearly Social Security Administration data to confirm that.

But Temple looked back at historical data and found that Atticus declined in popularity in 2015 — when Go Set a Watchman came out — but has increased since then, with 2020 being its high-water mark in popularity.

Related posts 

• What to expect when you name your kid after a fictional character

• What we can learn from the two versions of Atticus Finch