When the New York Knicks took home the NBA championship title for the first time in 53 years this summer, fans joked that a Knicks-inspired baby name trend may be nigh.
Would someone name their newborn daughter “Anna Nobey” after forward OG Anunoby, who famously tipped in a game-winning shot to complete a 29-point comeback in Game 4 of the Finals series? What about Knickole, or Knickolas?
That boom is now as official as the championship rings the Knicks will receive at the home opener Tuesday night: Twice as many newborn New Yorkers have been named “Jalen” — namesake of Knicks captain and Finals MVP Jalen Brunson — since March compared to the same time last year.
(No “Anna Nobey,” “Knickole,” or “Knickolas,” though. At least not yet.)
The popularity of the baby name “Jalen” ticked up in the city following the NBA Finals, according to the latest data The City Reporter obtained from the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Before the Knicks faced off against the San Antonio Spurs in the Finals series in mid June, just five babies had been named Jalen since March. Since then, 27 more newborns have taken on the name, adding up to a total of 32 Jalens between March and early October this year — more than double the 15 named Jalen over the same time period last year.
Queens native, illustrator and content creator Jason Wu was among the early adopters. A lifelong Knicks fan, Wu named his firstborn Jalen in May as he arrived into the world amid the team’s 13-game playoff winning streak — paying tribute to “Captain Clutch” Brunson, who ultimately scored 45 points in the championship-clinching game against the Spurs.
“The funny thing is, it was really Mommy’s idea,” Wu, 33, said in a video addressed to his son that racked up thousands of views on Instagram and TikTok. “A few years earlier, I had joked with friends that if he ever brought a championship to New York, I’d name my firstborn after him. I never brought it up to Mommy because I figured she’d think I was crazy. But Mommy became a fan, too, and the rest is history.”
Wu couldn’t believe it as he looked into baby Jalen’s bassinet after the Knick’s championship win: “I just remember staring at him, and going like, ‘Dude, you don’t even know,’” Wu told The City Reporter. “Like, what did I even do to deserve being blessed enough to have a kid with my wife and then being blessed enough to witness a special moment like this? I knew it was going to be a forever story.”
He added: “The running joke among my friends was that he was the prophet, the Messiah, the chosen one.”
The popularity of the name Jalen in the U.S. is a relatively recent phenomenon. The name did not appear in the top 1,000 most popular names according to the Social Security Administration until 1992, and peaked in popularity in the year 2000 as the 106th most popular name for a boy. (Rumor says its popularity is due to another NBA player, Jalen Rose.)
Brunson himself was born amid the upward trend, in 1996, and now shares the name (or some variation of it) with at least a dozen other players in the league — making it the most common name in the NBA. Ever heard the mega-viral song “Jalen Invansion” by Rainey Ovalle?
He’s Got Hart
There are other Knicks-related baby names, still, that have yet to be registered into the city record.
Partners Taylor Janney-Rovin and Daniel Rovin, for example, are expecting their firstborn in November and are planning to their baby boy “Hart” — namesake of Knicks star guard and Brunson’s Villanova roommate Josh Hart, known for his tenacious hustle.
Beyond just celebratory, the “Hart” name is personal to the couple, whose first date took place at a Knicks game in 2018. For Rovin, 38, the name is a way of honoring his late father, who instilled in him an unwavering loyalty for the Knicks since he was a young child, along with the Giants and the Mets.
His father’s health declined quickly due to cancer in February 2023, he said — the same time Hart was traded to New York from the Portland Trail Blazers, immediately kicking off a nine-game winning streak for the Knicks.
“As he was losing consciousness, he couldn’t even remember some of our names. But he could tell you the score of the Knicks game, and he would literally go like, ‘Oh, that guy Hart — he’s really turned the team around,’” Rovin recalled.
Soon, amid that winning streak, his father passed away.
“That year was really one of the first years of real hope for the Knicks — and in those nine games, it was like, ‘Maybe there’s something here’ — and I’d like to think they won a championship in his mind. But we had to wait a few years,” Rovin said. “Part of me feels weird naming our kid after some grown man I’ve never even met, but I also want to name him after my father.”
Some time during the first-round series against the Atlanta Hawks, the couple agreed on a bet to name their newborn after Hart should the Knicks become champions, said Janney-Rovin, 34, who, like Hart, is from Montgomery County, Maryland. But if it was up to Rovin alone, she said, their firstborn, too, would most likely end up with the name “Jalen.”
“I would seriously name him Jalen Brunson because that motherf-cker literally is the most important person in my life. But it doesn’t happen without Josh — they’re not there without him,” Rovin said. “It’s his mentality that we want to pass along to our son.”
“But also ‘heart’ as a word,” Janney-Rovin chimed in. “The idea to give heart to everything you do.”
Asked what his father would think of the name, however, Rovin chuckled and responded almost instinctively: “He would’ve been like, ‘F-ck that Yankees fan.’”
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The post The Knicks’ Championship Rings Are Finally Here. So Is a ‘Jalen’ Baby Name Boom in NYC. appeared first on The City Reporter.
