No matter what your personal taste and style, American cultural history and places can be a great inspiration for a unique baby name idea, one that pays tribute to your beloved cultural era or location.

American pop culture has spilled across borders and continents, and being more American for many means carrying a bit of the royal status. In addition, television and movies have become an increasing influence on everyday life. Take the UK for example. The names Keira and Kiera became popular when British actress Keira Knightly entered the spotlight with her roles in /Bend It Like Beckham/ and /Pirates of the Caribbean/. Surprisingly, bad reputations have been known to spark good trends as well. An evil nanny named Peyton in the film /The Hand that Rocks the Cradle/ made the name an instant favorite, whereas before it was virtually unheard of.

The film industry does not have a monopoly on the international trend machine. Daytime shows have been influencing the everyday life of the average American family since before television, as some soap operas started out on the radio. A character named Kayla on the soap opera /Days of Our Lives/ gave the name incredible popularity, and hundreds if not thousands of Kayla's today are the product of the show's trend-setting influence.

Some ideas to consider are:

Name Your Baby After Your Favorite Song - A song can make or break a name. Many names are liked based on personal associations created by a hit song. After all, who can think of a better name choice, than one that is worth writing songs about?

Retro Names for Your Baby - So you know what the popular names of today are, but do you know which names were popular in 1880? The "fashion" of names has changed throughout the years, but some names have stayed on top of the charts. Choose a name that is commonly associated with a specific decade.

The 80's are back – Recent survey results show that 80's inspired names are trendy today. The names are traditional and conservative, often inspired by TV shows, universities and the global money market which boomed and crashed in the spandex decade.