If you spend any time on BookTok — the corner of TikTok devoted to reading, and specifically to the romantasy genre — you know these names. Rhysand. Cassian. Azriel. Feyre. Nesta. They belong to characters in Sarah J. Maas's A Court of Thorns and Roses series, and they have inspired a level of reader devotion that has started showing up in actual birth records.
This isn't entirely new. Books have always influenced baby names. Twilight sent Bella and Edward soaring in the late 2000s. Harry Potter boosted Hermione. But the BookTok phenomenon is different in speed and specificity — when a series goes viral on the platform, reader engagement is immediate, passionate, and connected to a community in ways that older fandoms never were.
Let's look at what the SSA data actually shows.
The ACOTAR Names: What the Data Says
The A Court of Thorns and Roses series, which began in 2015 and ran through multiple sequels and spin-offs, features a set of characters with names that blend Celtic, Slavic, and invented fantasy etymology. Here's where they land in the current rankings:
- Violet (F) — #15 (177,973 total) — from Fourth Wing's Violet Sorrengail; already popular, got another boost
- Rowan (M) — #71 (45,386 total) — Rowan Whitethorn from Throne of Glass; the Celtic origin gives it real-world grounding
- Jude (M) — #156 (51,573 total) — Jude Duarte from Holly Black's The Cruel Prince; peaking in 2015, still strong
- Rowan (F) — #266 (20,976 total) — crossing gender lines in part due to romantasy's female-coded fandom choosing the name anyway
- Bryce (M) — #297 (123,169 total) — Bryce Quinlan from Sarah J. Maas's Crescent City
- Rhys (M) — #354 (13,547 total) — Rhysand from ACOTAR; the Welsh spelling is climbing fast, peaked 2024
- Dorian (M) — #538 (23,627 total) — Dorian Havilliard from Throne of Glass
- Azriel (M) — #607 (3,433 total) — the Shadowsinger from ACOTAR; peaked in 2024, entering the top 700
- Cassian (M) — #616 (2,256 total) — the Illyrian commander from ACOTAR; peaked 2023, climbing
- Lucien (M) — #912 (9,725 total) — the emissary from ACOTAR; peaked 2024, early signs of BookTok influence
- Xaden (M) — #2,182 (392 total) — Xaden Riorson from Fourth Wing; nearly invented, now in the rankings
- Aelin (F) — #2,320 (304 total) — the queen-protagonist of Throne of Glass; now in SSA data
- Nesta (F) — #9,353 (99 total) — Nesta Archeron from ACOTAR; peaked 1937 (pre-Maas), seeing new use
- Cressida (F) — #12,408 (151 total) — a character name across multiple fantasy series; rare but real
- Feyre (F) — #8,079 (65 total) — the protagonist of ACOTAR; an invented name now genuinely used
- Rhysand (M) — #6,384 (60 total) — the full name of the ACOTAR love interest; 60 babies is not zero
The Most Interesting Signal: Azriel and Cassian
The names that most clearly signal BookTok influence are Azriel and Cassian. Both peaked in 2023-2024. Both appear to have been virtually absent from U.S. birth records before the ACOTAR series became a cultural phenomenon. Azriel is a Hebrew name (angel of death, in some traditions) that had essentially no modern usage until the character made it cool. Cassian has Latin roots (from the Roman family name Cassius) but was genuinely rare in the United States until the Illyrian warrior made it appealing.
Combined, Azriel and Cassian account for fewer than 6,000 total American bearers — almost all of them very young. That's a direct literary footprint.
Rhys: The Welsh Connection
Rhys is worth examining separately. The name is genuinely Welsh in origin — it means "enthusiasm" or "ardor" in Welsh and has been common in Wales for centuries. It existed in U.S. birth records before ACOTAR. But its current trajectory — #354 and peaked in 2024 — suggests that BookTok fandom is accelerating a name that was already on an upward path. The full form "Rhysand" appearing in SSA data (60 total bearers) is the clearest signal that at least some parents are naming directly after the character.
Violet and the Fourth Wing Effect
Violet Sorrengail is the protagonist of Rebecca Yarros's Fourth Wing (2023), one of the fastest-selling fantasy novels in publishing history. Violet was already at #15 before the book came out — it was already trending due to cottagecore aesthetics and celebrity choice. But the Fourth Wing wave almost certainly gave it an extra push, particularly among a younger cohort of parents who consumed the book as part of their BookTok community.
Xaden, Violet's love interest in Fourth Wing, is a different story. The name appears to be largely invented by Yarros. It entered the SSA rankings with 392 total bearers, peaked in 2024. That's remarkable for a name that probably didn't exist ten years ago.
The Invented Name Question
One of the most interesting aspects of BookTok's influence is the willingness of parents to use what are essentially invented names — Feyre, Xaden, Rhysand. Traditional naming wisdom said invented names were risky: they'd be misspelled, mispronounced, questioned at every turn.
But for parents embedded in BookTok fandom communities, a name like Feyre carries enormous meaning and recognition. It's not an invented name to them — it's a name with a whole emotional history attached to it. The pronunciation (FAY-ruh) is clear to anyone who's read the books. The meaning is richer than most "traditional" names, because it carries a narrative.
This is actually consistent with how names have always worked: a name is a cultural signifier. Feyre means something specific to a community of readers, exactly the way Sebastian means something specific to a community of Bach enthusiasts or Augustine means something specific to a community of Catholic theologians.
What to Watch Next
The BookTok pipeline to baby names moves faster than any previous literary influence because TikTok compresses the cultural cycle. A book goes viral in February; by October, parents are naming their babies after characters. By the following year, the SSA data shows it.
Watch for names from the Crescent City series (Hunt, Ruhn, Bryce — some already in the data), the From Blood and Ash series by Jennifer L. Armentrout (Hawke, Poppy), and whatever Sarah J. Maas publishes next. The fandom-to-birth-record pipeline is functioning and accelerating.
Browse more literary names at dark academia names or names inspired by books. You can also see how any of these names have trended over time with our name comparison tool, or check the full rankings to see where your favorite BookTok name currently sits.
Data source: U.S. Social Security Administration. Analysis by NamesPop.