'Fifty Shades of Grey' Influences Popular Baby Names 2012

Controversial book of the year "Fifty Shades of Grey" has a greater effect on America's daily life than what was originally thought to be.

When the website "BabyCenter" released its "Top 100 Names of the Year" list last week, it found a significant number of parents naming their babies after the characters of the novel. While the name Grey saw a 20 percent increase in popularity compared to last year, Anastasia had a 10 percent jump and Ana rose by 35 positions.

"Earlier this year we heard moms telling us... this book is an aphrodisiac and it's helping them get pregnant," BabyCenter's global editor in chief Linda Murray told TODAY. "So it was not a surprise to see these names coming up the list."

"I'm wondering how the moms are going to explain the inspiration for these names in a few years."

The list was prepared after examining the trend among 450,000 babies of parents registered with the BabyCenter website. Aiden topped the boy's list for the eighth year, and Sophia continued to remain in the first rank for the third year. Mia and Jack are the new entries in this year's top 10 list.

Apart from the book, parents were also found inspired by funny characters like Betty White, English-Irish boy band "One Direction" (Harry and Liam), technology (Apple, Mac) and politics (Reagan, Kennedy, Carter, Lincoln and Nixon).

"This was a surprise to us this year," Murray told TODAY. "We hadn't seen Apple rise when Gwyneth Paltrow named her daughter, but people love their technology."

Emma, Olivia, Isabella, Ava, Lily, Zoe, Chloe and Madison are some of the popular girl names coming after Sophia. 

Jackson, Ethan, Liam, Mason, Noah, Lucas, Jacob, Jayden and Jack are some of the top 10 popular boy names.