Tom Cruise’s ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ Has Skyrocketed a Beloved Baby Name to Even More Popularity
With the premiere of Top Gun: Maverick, Tom Cruise has set another career box-office benchmark. The 59-year-old still draws massive audiences. And his cultural impact still has a great deal of reach. Consider the baby name “Maverick,” which has slowly climbed the rankings since the original Top Gun debuted in 1986. Now, Cruise’s latest military action/adventure has further boosted the name’s popularity in American culture.
The release of ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ wasn’t always a sure thing
The first obstacle Top Gun: Maverick faced was Tom Cruise. The Risky Business star has always been protective of the reputation of his biggest films. For years, he insisted that trying to do a latter-day follow-up to the lightning-in-a-bottle hit Top Gun would be a major mistake.
Director Joseph Kosinski eventually developed the pitch that got the original film’s headliner on board for the late sequel. With Tron: Legacy, Kosinski proved his ability to revive old franchises in genuinely exciting — rather than backward-looking — ways. But pandemic delays would be the next major obstacle in getting Maverick made.
Popular Mechanics reports that the fighter-jet action flick was slated for a June 2020 release. It was held back for nearly two full years to find the best date possible. And that decision, risky as it seemed, paid off. Maverick marks the highest-grossing opening weekend of Tom Cruise’s blockbuster career.
The baby name ‘Maverick’ has seen a big boost
Top Gun was an enormous blockbuster in an era when summers abounded with wide-release action films. After its 1986 release, it became an indelible part of American culture. That’s the moment that set off the unlikely, slowly rising trend of the baby name “Maverick.”
According to the Social Security Administration, the name is more popular than ever before. By the year 2000, it was the 864th most popular name nationwide. As more childhood Top Gun fanatics grew up, the moniker continued climbing the list. By 2021 — several years into the promotional cycle of Top Gun: Maverick — the name reached its highest ranking at 47.
The quirky name’s popularity appears to be tied to the films. Cruise is one of the most famous actors on the planet, and it’s one of his most famous roles, after all. The moniker carries the weight of the basic meaning of the word and contains a clever nod to Top Gun fans within it.
Tom Cruise is one of the last true movie stars
The success of Maverick — the movie — probably shouldn’t be a surprise. Tom Cruise is what The New York Times calls one of the “last true movie stars.” He insists on working on only meticulously crafted projects. He positions himself alongside his directors, making sure his films meet his standards. The actor also takes on leadership roles among the cast and crew alike.
For Maverick, Cruise went above and beyond his already lofty standards. IGN reports that the veteran actor personally created a demanding flight training plan based on his own experiences flying real aircraft in previous films. Thanks to Kosinski and Cruise, Maverick has the look and feel of a different kind of blockbuster than the CG-heavy Marvel and DC Comics fare that has dominated lately.
The closest young actor to Cruise’s proven box office draw in the post-pandemic era is Spider-Man star Tom Holland. Both Spider-Man: No Way Home and Uncharted broke through the anemic consumer spending on the theater experience.
But unlike Cruise, Holland was merely an actor in those films. The young actor has yet to step up and demand high standards, from lighting to practical effects, in his movies. To match Cruise and become the next great movie star, Holland will have to pour himself into the filmmaking process.
