A few years ago, scouring the Ikea catalogue for baby name inspiration became an unexpected hipster trend.
"Naming your baby after Ikea furniture might seem ridiculous at first glance, but don’t dismiss the idea," wrote Lucy BC of parenting website BabyCentre at the time. "Ikea is known for the charming Scandinavian names it gives its products and many work surprisingly well as baby names."
Now Ikea Norway has really leaned into the crossover between baby names and its distinctively titled furniture by launching an online name bank. Sure, it's probably just a publicity stunt tapping into Norway's post-pandemic baby boom, but the name bank is still a lot of fun to check out.
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"Finding the name of the child can be both difficult and fun," writes Ikea Norway on its website. "We at Ikea have given names to products for more than 70 years. So, if you are completely stuck, or just want some inspiration, here you will find over 800 boys' names and girls' names."
Many of the names in the bank come with a photo of the Ikea product it was attached to. Some like Daphne and Doris date back to the 1950s, so they're pretty retro, whereas others were used by Ikea in the last few years. And yes, many of them do work really well as baby names: think Alba, Bettina and Bea, plus Felix, Magnus and Remi.
You can dive into the name bank here, but be warned: it's surprisingly addictive, especially if you're also a fan of vintage homeware and furniture. Anneli, a dressing table from 1967, is particularly cute.
You can also check out the buzziest baby names of 2022 – Amelia, Olivia and Ava clearly aren't going away any time soon – and the baby names that are slowly falling out of fashion. It's not great news for Gemma and Jodie, we're afraid.
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