Kobe Bryant has been honored in myriad ways in 2020 since his untimely passing in January.
Apparently, one significant way in which the memory of the Mamba is living on has come in the form of new pet names.
According to the dog-walking site Rover.com, which releases an annual list of popular pet names, Kobe Bryant-related names saw a massive uptick in 2020 (TMZ aggregated the numbers).
The name “Mamba” is up 111% from the year before. “Black Mamba” is up 58% and “Kobe” is up 16%. The name “Gianna” is up 20% from 2019, which one can assume is largely a result of pet owners paying tribute to Kobe's daughter (familiarly known as Gigi), who also tragically perished with her father.
In other sports-related pet-news, the name “LeBron” was reportedly more frequent with dog owners in 2020 than the year prior.
Enjoyably, the full name “Michael Jordan” has seen an uptick among cats in 2020, likely thanks to the massive popularity of the docu-series, “The Last Dance,” which aired on ESPN in the spring and is now available on Netflix.
Beyond basketball, “Neymar” has seen a 58% increase among athlete-inspired dog names this year.
“Tom Brady” has also seen a dramatic uptick in usage as a dog name, which could be a consequence of the future Hall of Famer relocating to Florida to play for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
In October, BabyCenter reported noticing a surge in the popularity of human children named after the Los Angeles Lakers legend and Gigi. The name “Kobe” was the biggest riser on the list for newborn boys' names, shooting up from #595 in 2019 to #216 in 2020.
The name “Gianna” rose among newborn girls from #76 to…#24.
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