Baby names in the United States are getting weirder. While good old fashioned Irish names such as Liam and Michael remain in the top ten names in the United States monikers to do with guns and violence such as Gunner, Pistol and Arson, are on the up.

A weird trend for sure.

Perusing the top 50 most popular names in the United States there are still some old Irish names in there such as Riley and Nora for girls (in at 47 and 49) and Liam and Michael are still going strong, ranked at number 2 and 7. Aidan and Ryan also make it on to the top 50 list of boy’s names but the trend that Name Berry has picked up is a seriously strange one.

A new survey found that named related to guns, knives, historical warriors, dark goddesses and macho movie stars are becoming hugely popular in the US. The most popular is Gunner, given to 1,500 babies in the last year. Gunner is taken from Gunnar, meaning “bold warrior” in Swedish, had is among the top 200 names for boys.

Cannon is in the top 1,000. Other names gaining popularity are Trigger, Shooter, Caliber, Magnum and Pistol as well as Barrett, Remington, Kimber, Ruger, Wesson, Browning, Benelli and Beretta. In a country grappling with gun violence everyday it’s hard to see why parents would choose these names. Perhaps it is to forearm their children in a tougher society?

They’re also going for old-school weaponry names such as Lance, Mace, Blade, Saw and Dagger. The name Sabre is also growing in popularity as a girl’s name.

As the folks at Name Berry said “It’s a tough world out there, and the new cadre of aggressive, sometimes violent baby names paint a grim picture of parents’ outlook for the future.”

We think we’d like to see more Seans, Colleens and Patricks on the list.

What do you think? Should parents be allowed to name their children whatever they want?