There was a time when people were shamed for reading smutty books, whether for the steaminess factor or the misconception that romance wasn’t real literature.
But now, thanks to the surging popularity of books by authors like Sarah J. Maas and Rebecca Yarros, readers are loudly and proudly embracing the genre — and even appear to be naming their children after their favourite sexy fairies.
That’s right. Some of the characters from Maas’ internationally best-selling series A Court of Thorns and Roses (ACOTAR) are starting to pop up on baby names lists in the U.S. and Canada.
So will we be seeing little Cassians and tiny Nestas on the playground?
Maas is already the top-selling author in 2024 and described by her publisher Bloomsbury as a “phenomenon” with 16 titles under her belt and six more in the works. According to her website, she’s sold more than 38 million copies of her books in English alone, and videos about her books on TikTok have billions of views.
“If you think no one would dare name their newborn after a six-foot-tall sexy fairy, well, you underestimate the fandom behind author Sarah J. Maas,” noted U.S. parenting website Romper last week.
16:21Why do readers love Sarah J. Maas’ romantasy novels?
Novelist Sarah J. Maas sits atop the ever-popular romantasy genre — a mix of fantasy and romance — that’s dominating social media. With her new book House of Flame and Shadow, Heather O’Neill, Kathryn VanArendonk and Makda Mulatu discuss why Maas attracts such a large fanbase.
On TikTok, some fans of the books have been announcing baby names like Katniss Feyre Violet (named after heriones in three YA series, including ACOTAR), Cassian, and Rhys Larson, all inspired by the books.
“Did all of the BookTok moms have babies last year?” said Sophie Kihm, editor-in-chief of U.S. baby name website Nameberry, in a TikTok video posted in May.
Fairy baby names are here
Warning: Mild ACOTAR book spoilers below
The books in the five-part series were originally published between 2015 and 2021, but sales surged in more recent years thanks to superfans on TikTok.
According to Motherly, another U.S. parenting website, since the first book in the series came out in 2015, in the U.S. there have been at least 11 babies named Feyre (also the name of the human-turned-fairy main character), seven named Rhysand (her lover and mate), and seven named Nesta (her calculating sister).
The U.S. Social Security Administration also publishes an annual list of names that had notable increases in popularity, and winged warriors Cassian, Azriel and Rhys all made the list in 2023, as did Lucien, Feyre’s loyal friend with a mechanical eye.
In Canada, the names Lucien, Rhys, Cassian, Azriel and Morrigan have all seen little bumps in the last few years, according to data provided by Statistics Canada.
The data don’t show why parents chose these names, only that they chose them. But Nameberry called the ACOTAR series the “breakout pop culture baby name influence” of 2023.
Rhys, already a popular Welsh name that peaked in Canada in 2008, jumped slightly in 2017, the year after A Court of Mist and Fury came out, in which Night Court High Lord Rhys (short for Rhysand) becomes the male main character. There were 13 boys named Azriel in 2022 (compared to zero in 2014) and 20 named Cassian (also jumping from zero in 2014).
Lucien saw a little jump in 2016. And there were seven girls named Morrigan in 2019, Rhys’ feisty war-hero cousin.
Luckily, there appear to have been zero babies in Canada named Tamlin, who started out a hero in Book 1 but became so despised by Book 2 that BookTok now refers to him as #Tampon.
While these particular names may be new, naming children after fictional book characters isn’t, explained Duncan Stewart, a consumer-forecasting analyst for Deloitte who lives in Toronto and specializes in media and technology, including book publishing.
“There have been surges in name popularity for decades now,” he told CBC News.
The names from the Harry Potter series saw a sharp jump after those books were released, notes the Daily Mail, especially for main characters Harry and Hermione. Baby names like Arya and Khaleesi from the Game of Thrones series surged around 2018, according to CBS News. And Bella’s enduring popularity was boosted by the Twilight series, Fatherly reports.
The Next Chapter15:12The meteoric rise of ‘romantasy’ novels
The combination of fantasy and romance genres have turbo charged the publishing world. CBC Book’s in-house Booktok star, Bridget Raymundo joins the show to recommend some popular romantasy titles, such as Goddess Crown by Shade Lapite, Sanctuary of the Shadow by Aurora Ascher, and The Hurricane Wars by Thea Guanzone.
The ‘romantasy’ explosion
Romance as a genre has been around for decades, and selling upwards of hundreds of millions of books annually, but it was often, wrongly, seen as something to be ashamed of admitting you enjoyed, Stewart told CBC News.
But that’s changing thanks to a wave of books popular with younger readers featuring strong female leads and a dash of spice and fantasy — books like ACOTOR, and Yarrow’s Fourth Wing.
Industry group BookNet Canada’s research shows romance book sales in Canada jumped 54 per cent in 2022, and continue to climb. In its newest report, BookNet notes that romance and fantasy were the second and third-most popular fiction genres with Canadian readers in 2023, behind mysteries and thrillers.
Most of the top-10 selling fiction books in Canada in 2023, according to BookNet Canada, were romance titles and “romantasy,” a genre that combines romance and fantasy.
Canadian novelist and poet Heather O’Neill recently told CBC’s Commotion that Maas’ books are different from some of the older romances out there, where “you just meet a man to project your internal misogyny on.”
“One thing I noticed both in new romance and romantasy was this reclamation of female desire,” she said.
The ACOTAR baby name surge, albeit small in numbers, actually matters a lot in terms of what it says about romantasy, Stewart said.
“Naming your child after a character in a book requires a certain level of social acceptability for that genre.”
Lovers of the genre say it’s more than spicy smut. They argue romance novels are an important educational tool to promote conversations about healthy sex, consent, acceptance and equality.
