“Hey Cullen! Isabella! Get in the house this instant!”

Did you know that in 2009, according to the folks at Social Security, the most popular names for kids were from vampire fiction? And it’s not Dracula, or Vlad, or Alucard or Vampira. That’s old school thinking. The new popular names are from Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight, the book-and-movie franchise.

Cullen jumped up 300 spots on the list from the previous year, Jacob is #1 for boys, Isabella (the formalized version of Bella) is #1 for girls and Bella is #58. I think it’s great that the Twilight series of books and movies has spawned an entire generation of children named after the characters. I hope it means that naming your kids Peaches, Apple, Brooklyn and Pilot Inspektor in lockstep with nutty celebrities is on the outs, and the Twilight franchise as name-generator is in.

But could that change for 2010? Now that Iron Man is arguably the most popular super-hero movie franchise, could the Marvel Comics series also spawn a legion of Marvel-based names for kids?

Who wouldn’t want their kids on a playground with gaggle of Rhodeys, Peppers, Happys, Natashas, Jarvis’s and Tony’s? So if you’re having kids in 2010, put away the vampire lit and the Baby Names for Dummies book and think Marvel Universe. The world needs more people named Happy and Pepper.

For more on Pepper Potts, consult Bully, the little stuffed bull.

[Artwork: photo of Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts, © Marvel Characters]