This Increasingly Popular Baby Name Trend Is Taking an ‘Aggressive’ Turn, and Experts Are Alarmed by What They’re Seeing

Somewhere between honoring grandpa’s name and picking something from a favorite show, a new baby-naming category has emerged: weapons. Parents are increasingly reaching for names inspired by guns, knives, and ammunition to name their sons, and the people who study naming trends for a living are watching closely, and uneasily.

According to Sophie Kihm, editor-in-chief at Nameberry, a small but noticeable pattern has taken hold among parents choosing aggressive, weapons-inspired names for their sons. Kihm points to names like Wesson, Caliber, Shooter, and Trigger, all of which first started appearing on official baby name charts back in the 2000s, as early evidence of the shift.

The list has only grown since. Kihm cites Blade and Cannon as newer additions, alongside brand-derived names like Remington, Colt, Ruger, and Winchester, all pulled directly from firearms manufacturers. Social Security Administration data adds even more names with a violent edge to the mix, including Arson, Cutter, and Dagger, names some parents are giving their newborn sons without a second thought.

Wesson Was Given to 306 Babies in a Single Year, According to Federal Data

The numbers behind this trend are more concrete than the name list alone suggests. Kihm notes that Wesson peaked in 2021 with 306 uses, while Caliber saw 24 uses in 2018, Mace hit 64 uses in 2022, and Dagger appeared 13 times that same year. Whether these numbers keep climbing or start to fade is still an open question, Kihm says.

Not every expert agrees the trend looks the same going forward. Abby Sandel, who runs the baby name blog Appellation Mountain, believes the wave of names borrowed directly from gun manufacturers has likely peaked already. What’s replacing it, she says, is subtler: names like Archer, once tied to soldiers who fought with bows, now read as simply preppy and polished.

Barrett fits the same quiet pattern, Sandel notes, a sophisticated-sounding surname that also happens to belong to a firearms manufacturer. Kihm sees a related force at work too: the rising popularity of surnames as first names generally, pointing to names like Carter, Parker, and Hunter as stylistically similar to Shooter, Trigger, and Dagger in both syllable count and structure.

One Expert Says These Names Might Be a Reaction to Shifting Gender Norms

Kihm connects the weapons trend to a broader appetite for names with a “renegade spirit,” citing Maverick’s continued rise alongside cowboy-coded names like Dutton, Stetson, and Boone climbing the charts. In her view, the two categories are close cousins. It’s easy, she says, to imagine siblings named Boone and Wesson, or Shooter and Stetson, sharing the same last name.

Jennifer Moss, founder of BabyNames.com, offers a more pointed theory about what’s actually driving some of these choices. She suggests certain parents feel threatened by broader cultural acceptance of gender identities outside the traditional binary, and respond by assigning sons names traditionally linked to aggression or strength, hoping the name itself might instill those traits.

Geography plays a role too. Nameberry’s own research into “reddest” and “bluest” baby names ranks Gunner, spelled distinctly from the Scandinavian Gunnar, as the ninth reddest boy’s name in the country. Sandel adds that babies named Remington or Gatlin are far more likely to be born in Texas or Alabama than in California or Maryland.

Nameberry’s Editor Says She ‘Cannot Get Behind’ the Trend at All

Of all the experts weighing in, Kihm is the most unequivocal in her rejection of the trend. “I cannot get behind weapon-inspired names,” Kihm said, arguing that they glamorize violence and feel especially out of step given how much gun violence the country has already seen. In her name-consulting work, she says she’s never once had a client request one.

Sandel takes a more case-by-case approach, drawing a real distinction between names on the list. She’d sign off on Remington or Archer without hesitation, and offers a cautious maybe to Gatlin or Gunner. But Beretta, she says, crosses a line entirely, an uncommon given name whose weapons association is simply too immediate and too heavy for a child to carry.

Moss’s closing advice cuts deeper than any single name on the list. She urges parents to examine their own fears and biases before folding them into a child’s identity, since a name freighted with violence can just as easily become the target of jokes as a source of pride. A child’s name, she says, should leave room for them to grow into someone entirely their own.