Kobe Bryant, or how a Japanese city has become a (almost) first name like any other

Around each myth, float a certain number of fantasies, unverifiable legends. Among those surrounding basketball player Kobe Bryant, who disappeared this Sunday evening in a helicopter accident, there is this mysterious story of first name.

Since the beginning of Black Mamba's career, it has been rumored that he was chosen in homage to the ultra-renowned specialty of the Japanese city, a meat of rare quality. Truthful? On the side of Japan, we nod the chef. "Our city was lucky to cross the path of Kobe Bryant, because his father gave him the name of the city, given his love for Kobe beef," said Mayor Kizo Hisamoto on Monday CNN. Adding that the basketball player was the city's ambassador from 2001 to 2011.

"We think that it is thanks to its name that the value of Kobe beef has been… raised worldwide," added Tetsunori Tanimoto, director of the Association for the Promotion of Marketing and Distribution of this product. meat.

Theories never confirmed by parents

After several hours of research, however, it is impossible to certify this story 100%. It circulates everywhere, but neither his mother Pam, nor his father Joe - two former professional basketball players - have confirmed this thesis, to our knowledge.

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The official NBA website, according to an archive, also supports this story, even if it offers a slightly different story. The couple would have simply appreciated the musicality of the word after reading the menu of a Japanese restaurant. To add to the confusion, others, like the Grunge site, squarely make the link between Kobe, the meat, and "Bean", the father's middle name which means bean. In short, you have to take it all with tweezers.

A peak of small Kobe in 2001

What does not make any fold, however, is that it is thanks to the idol of the Lakers that this first name has landed in American maternity homes. Before 1996, the first name Kobe did not exist there, or so little. The Social Security Administration files - which have recorded the names given at least five times a year to a baby registered with the organization since 1880 - had recorded this name only once. It was in 1989… for five small births.

From 1996 and the first three points of Kobe Bryant, everything will change. Parents, whether they come from California or elsewhere, will adopt the Japanese style. And that they want to place their offspring under the lucky star of the back of the Lakers, or that they simply like the sound of the two syllables.

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The peak will be reached in 2001, the first golden age of the American, who wins three consecutive NBA trophies. 1552 boys then receive the name of the MVP… but also 19 girls. Kobe thus becomes the 222 most common first name. In absolute terms, it is not huge. But when you know that there was not one in 1995, it is striking. The pop-culture effect! In France, there is no Kobe in the INSEE registers. Our Belgian neighbors, on the other hand, have converted. From 1999 to 2016, more than one hundred new toddlers each year wore the first name of the basketball champion.

In this little game, we also had fun comparing the posterity of Kobe Bryant to that of Shaquille O'Neal, his friend and no less rival of the Lakers. As in magazines, the Shaq is relegated to the background, with about ten times fewer first names during its period of glory in the United States.