Giving life to the age-old saying that there’s plenty of fish in the sea, a provider of personalised number plates have cross-referenced baby names registered in the UK over the past 25 years with some of the most famous celebrity “power couples”, in the hopes of discovering how likely it is that you could pair up and recreate some of the romantic moments from your favourite dynamic duos.
Collecting ONS data on baby names for boys and girls between 1996 to 2022, Regtransfers explored the differences between those aged 18-28 and those born after 2007 – effectively putting a Gen Z majority against the majority of Gen Alpha to see which has the better chances of being able to recreate some of our favourite celebrity power couples.
“It might seem strange for a provider of personalised number plates to conduct research around celebrity and baby names”, comments Regtransfers CEO Mark Trimbee, “but names play an important role in our identities, and many people take pride in owning a number plate that matches their name. We regularly keep an eye on trends in all sorts of spaces – including baby names – as an increase or decrease in popularity can have an impact on the value of some plate combinations. What’s more, we’ve been lucky enough to meet and provide personalised plates for a number of celebs like David Beckham, Robbie Williams and even Harry Styles, so we love dipping our toes into pop culture every now and then.”
Romeo & Juliet
While not strictly a celebrity power couple in the conventional sense, Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet could be considered the original power couple (providing you ignore how it ended for them). Sadly, if you’re a Gen Z Juliet looking for her Romeo, you might be hard-pressed to find one. There are a mere 609 women aged 18-28 named Juliet, while there are even less men of the same age – only 307 – named Romeo. That translates to just half a Romeo per Juliet.
It’s a little more promising for Gen Alpha couples; in those aged under 18, 2,324 Romeos have been born since 2007, compared to 1,055 Juliets – meaning there are 2 dashing Romeos for every young Juliet out there.
Prince Harry & Meghan Markle
As you might expect, if you’re lucky enough to share your name with Meghan Markle, it won’t be too difficult to recreate the royal romance shared by these two. With just 1,329 Meghans aged 18-28 compared to 54,648 men named Harry, this equates to around 41 Harrys per Meghan, meaning you’re in with a good chance of finding your perfect prince.
Sadly, the younger generation of Meghans have got the adults beat. A surge in the popularity of the name Harry means that there are 107 Gen Alpha Princes per Meghan, meaning they’re utterly spoiled for choice.
Penélope Cruz & Javier Bardem
You can probably guess how this one will swing, as Javier isn’t a very common name in the UK Curiously, however, Penelope didn’t seem to be a very popular baby name between 1996 and 2006 either; there are only 447 Gen Z women named Penelope out there, but that’s still more than the 148 Javiers you’d have to split between you (into thirds, if you’re curious).
Still, this is the first example where Gen Z have Gen Alpha beat; A rise in popularity of the name from 2015 onwards means there are now 10,373 young Penelopes out there, each of whom will have to fight over just 324 Javiers…That’s a measly 0.03 Javiers per Penelope.
Ellen Degeneres & Portia Rossi
American power couple Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi married back in 2008, but this didn’t seem to affect the popularity of either baby name in the UK, making it tricky to recreate this celebrity pairing. If you’re one of the 6,422 Gen Z Ellens out there, you’ll have to find a way to share just 302 Portias between you. Obviously, it’s a bit easier if the shoe is on the other foot; if you’re named Portia, there are 21 Ellens to choose from for each of you.
In the younger generation, things get slightly easier—a drop in the popularity of the name Ellen means there are only 2,277 Gen A Ellens, but the name Portia has also become rarer, with just 128 young Portias being born. That’s 12 Ellens for every Portia, or conversely, about 1 Portia for every 12 Ellens.
Nick Jonas & Priyanka Chopra
Nick, Nicky, Nicholas, Nikolaos, Nico, Niko and Nikodem. There are a whole bunch of ways to give a baby boy a name that can be shortened to “Nick”, so for sake of ease we’re going to focus on babies born with the same name (and spelling) as Nick Jonas – Nicholas.
Priyanka is another rare name in the UK, with just 337 Gen Z Priyas getting to choose between an unexpectedly whopping 9.142 Nicks out there – that’s 27 Nicks per Priyanka. It seems the Priyanka’s of Gen Alpha will have an even easier time; while there are less young Nicks out there – just 6,360 – there’s also about a third of the number of young Priyanka’s – just 128. If you’re wondering, that means you’ve each got 50 Nicks each to choose from.
Mila Kunis & Ashton Kutcher
Kutcher and Kunis originally met on the set of That 70s Show, but it wasn’t until 2012 that the two got together, subsequently marrying in 2015. While the popularity of Mila for a newborn girl has progressively increased over time, the trend of naming a baby boy Ashton peaked in 2007, and has been dropping ever since, with just 292 Ashtons born in 2022.
What does this mean for your chances of recreating the celeb power couple’s relationship? Well, the 199 Milas of Gen Z have a healthy selection of 4,340 Ashtons to pick from – 21 Ashtons per Mila. However, the 9,094 young Milas of Gen A may need to fight hard for their share of 1.6 Ashtons (14,761 in total) – though perhaps one is enough?
Taylor Swift & Travis Kelce
Last but not least, Taylor Swift and her boyfriend Travis Kelce were recently spotted singing along to “I Believe in a Thing Called Love” by The Darkness – a moment that you could recreate in your own power coupling, if you’re lucky enough to a) be named Taylor, b) find someone called Travis and c) know the lyrics of the song. How hard could it be?
Well, if you’re a Gen Z Taylor, you might be able to recreate at least half of the moment, since that’s about as much of a Travis as you’ll be getting – there are 4,358 Gen Z Taylors out there who would need to share just 2,470 Travis’s. Perhaps almost poetically, the ratio of Gen Alpha Taylors to Travis’s is almost 1 to 1 – with 2,931 Taylors and 2,563 Travis’s…meaning they really do stand a chance of finding “the one” at some point in their lives.
Leave a Reply