I’ve mostly dedicated this weekend to reading the Chronicles of Narnia and watching the new Star Trek movies all the way through, both for the first time. As if I’m not nerdy enough, I’m currently wearing a t-shirt that says “Expressions of Vader.” And yes, that means I was wearing Star Wars regalia when I saw the new Star Trek movie today. Please don’t accuse me of crossing the streams – at least I’m not this guy:
Or do accuse me of crossing the streams, since I’ve just dragged the Ghostbusters into the fray. XD Nevertheless, I enjoyed the movie.
I don’t watch nearly enough sci-fi, though as a self-proclaimed “namenerd” I appreciate how profoundly it can affect baby naming. Star Wars is a great example. That series made Leia a popular name, boosted Luke, and created the now mildly-popular name Anakin.
Admittedly, I’m a bigger fan of Star Wars than of Star Trek, and I haven’t really considered Trekkie baby naming until now. I already did know about the Jean-Lucs, and it’s not too much of a stretch to think that those 9 boys named Trek last year were probably named in honor of Star Trek. But today there was one name in particular that piqued my interest – Jaylah.
Jaylah is a very modern name that currently ranks #483 in the U.S., down from #234 in 2012. Jayla is the more common spelling, with a current rank of #238, but I’ve also seen rarer spellings like Jaila. Both Jayla and Jaylah are losing popularity, Jaylah more rapidly. Under normal circumstances, we could probably expect them to leave the top 1000 within the next few years and go down in history as “flash-in-the-pans.” They may still exit soon. But, maybe not now that there’s a namesake.
Jaylah is a new character introduced in Star Trek Beyond, which only opened this past week. After aliens attack the Enterprise in uncharted space, the crew mostly ends up imprisoned by their attackers on a nearby planet, with some of the officers racing to find them and each other. Scotty, completely alone upon landing, ends up cornered by the enemy. Jaylah appears at the crucial moment and slaughters the enemy, saving Scotty. It turns out she lives in a long-lost Federation starship, and wants his help fixing it (i.e., getting it airborne). I don’t want to spoil the movie, so I’ll just say this: she’s awesome.
Back to my point: the name Jaylah not only now has a namesake, but more importantly has nerd cred. Will the new Star Trek film grant this name a reprieve in her downward popularity spiral? If so, will other spellings like Jayla become more popular too? What do you think of the name Jaylah?
P.S.: How’d y’all like the movie?
The Well-Informed Namer 
Quite enjoyed the movie: I don’t think it will be many people’s favourite movie ever, but it’s a solidly fun romp in the mould of classic Trek.
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This is funny 😀 It makes me laugh out loud 🙂 I like the name Anakin better than Jaylah, but it is quite nice 🙂
Star Trek Voyager is my favourite Star Trek, I highly recommend it if you haven’t seen it yet.
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Haven’t watched any Voyager, but I’ve seen a little bit of Next Gen.
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I haven’t seen much of Next Generation, they’re a bit too serious for me 😉 Voyager is on Netflix, if you’re interested 🙂
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I’m definitely interested. For now, it’s a matter of time and internet quality. 🙂
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😀 You have good instincts 😉
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I saw the film yesterday and loved it!
I love the name – it was created because the character was initially named ‘J-Law’ to describe a character that Jennifer Lawrence played in one of her films. They used the name as a description of what they wanted the characters personality to be like, and the name evolved from there…
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Wow, that’s so cool! It’s funny how these things happen. So did they know it was a real name then or were they attempting to go for something name-like?
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They used the J-Law thing to remind the actress of the sort of personality the character had I think, and the name just stuck…
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Loved this post! I never imagined that there were little Anakins running around out there haha. I think Jaylah is a pretty name and now based on your description, I’m curious to check out the movie, even though I haven’t really been a Star Trek fan.
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Believe me, there are plenty of Anakins running around! It’s a top 1000 name as of 2014. :O
Again, I’m not much of a Trekkie. But, if you like action movies and space exploration (I’d go so far to say if you like Star Wars), then I think you’ll enjoy the movies.
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My boyfriend got me into Star Wars, which I do enjoy, so I think I’ll check it out. I just always feel like I need to know the back story first, but I think they make these movies nowadays so that even the biggest newbie can follow along
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Lol, Star Wars is the probably the one thing where learning the backstory first isn’t so great. There’s a reason why they made Episode IV-VI before Episode I-III! XD
As for Star Trek – these movies are reboots, but it’s even acknowledged within the films that they follow an alternate timeline where the original events have been permanently altered by events in the original timeline, after the involved parties time-traveled through a black hole. That said, not knowing the backstory isn’t a big deal.
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