Because what is dead may never die, it is time to return to the world of Westeros.
HBO’s highly anticipated prequel series to the television show that once captured the attention of the entire world is set to debut this weekend.
“House of the Dragon” will premiere on HBO and HBO Max on Sunday, with hopes of recapturing the faithful viewership that once made the series a global phenomenon, before its final season was mostly panned by critics and audiences alike.
Prior to the show’s eighth season that saw many character arcs come to surprising (and in many cases, unsatisfying) ends, the show was unstoppable. The world was captivated by the lives of the Stark children, the backstabbing antics of the Lannister family and the legends of the dragon-riding Targaryens.
The show was so influential that many people made major life decisions based off of the show. For one, thousands of Thrones fans began adopting — and sadly, abandoning — husky dogs for their resemblance to direwolves, the faithful Stark companions from the series. Others chose to go the tattoo route, which, albeit more permanent, at least only affected their own lives and bodies.
Still, many fans of the insanely popular fantasy series decided the best way to honor their favorite fictional characters was to bestow their kin with a name fit for the Iron Throne.
In California, there are a lot of them.
According to data published by Crossword-Solver.com, which, as you can imagine, is a website that solves crossword clues, California had more “Game of Thrones”-inspired baby names than any other state.
The website analyzed United States Census data over the last decade to see just how big the boom was.
Their findings are about as surprising as a twist in an (early season) episode of the show itself.
Since 2011, more than 20,000 babies were brought into this world with a Westerosi name.
Of those 20,000 kids, 3,719 are in California — more than any other state.
GoT names are so prevalent in the Golden State that if you meet a kid between the ages of 2 and 11, there is a one-in-1,292 chance that they were named after one of George R.R. Martin’s characters, according to the website.
The biggest jump in popularity belonged to the name of Ned Stark’s youngest daughter.
Arya is far and away the name with the biggest post-Thrones boost. There have been more than 18,000 Aryas born since 2011. And although the name pre-dates the show and book series, the name jumped 200 spots in the most-popular baby names list following the premiere of the show’s pilot episode.
Coming in second is Khaleesi. While technically a title and not a first name, the name honors the Daenerys Targaryen, the mother of dragons and a bunch of other titles. *spoiler* One can only hope that the children were named after the queen of the Andals before the series finale.
There are 2,620 Aryas and 443 Khaleesi children in California, according to the study.
Tyrion, the half-man lovingly portrayed by Emmy-winner Peter Dinklage, was third among all “Game of Thrones” names with more than 400 nationwide.
Fan favorites like Jon Snow, Robert Baratheon and Catelyn Stark were excluded from the list because their names are already so popular.
To see where your favorite names ranked — Hot Pie did not crack the top 10 — and to read more about the methodology behind the study, click here.