Halloween Themed Baby Names

Need some baby name inspiration? If Halloween is one of your fave holidays, look no further! We dug into our favorite scary movies, books and TV shows  -- including True Blood, Twilight, Hitchcock classics and more -- to see which names gave us a thrill.

First Name Only: Freddy, Jason, Michael and Dexter

Some horror characters are so well known in pop culture only their first name is needed as a calling card (think Madonna or Cher, only scarier). Freddy brings to mind the gruesome villain from Nightmare on Elm Street. Jason was the hockey mask-sporting slasher from the Friday the 13^th flicks. And, of course, Michael, was the mass murderer in the Halloween series -- although apparently his ghastly deeds weren't quite horrific enough to scare folks away from the name: it's currently the third most popular name for boys in the U.S., and had consistently ranked in the top two for the five decades prior. Celeb fans of the name include actors Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones, who passed on the name to their son Dylan Michael in 2000, and TV host and actress Kelly Ripa and actor hubby Mark Consuelos, who named their firstborn Michael Joseph in 1997.

Dexter, the character from the eponymous Showtime series, is a blood-pattern analyst by day and the serial killer version of Robin Hood by night -- his code dictates that he only kill murderers. Fittingly, an actor named Michael (Hall) plays Dexter, and the name Dexter has also enjoyed a steady ascent since the series premiered in 2006, climbing almost 400 spots to number 545 in 2009, when Hall won a Golden Globe award. Years before it made such a jump in popularity, actress Diane Keaton bestowed the name on her daughter Dexter Dean, whom she adopted in 1996.

Plus:
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Top 10 Girl Baby Names of 2010
Top Themed Baby Names Lists