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Game of Thrones: Emilia Clarke responds to parents naming children Khaleesi and Daenerys

Parents of children named after their favourite Game of Thrones character were thrown by recent plot twists in the final series

Roisin O'Connor
Monday 20 May 2019 05:52 BST
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**Spoilers for Game of Thrones season eight ahead**

Game of Thrones star Emilia Clarke has offered her view on the parents naming their children after her character Daenerys.

Earlier this month it reported that Game of Thrones fans who had named their children "Khaleesi" or "Daenerys" in honour of the Mother of Dragons were unhappy with the character's descent into madness.

According to the United States’ Social Security Administration, more than 4,500 babies were named after Game of Thrones characters alone. The data found that 560 of those were named Khaleesi and 163 were named Daenerys.

See our definitive ranking of Game of Thrones characters in the gallery below

“I’m kind of in shock,” Estrada, whose six-year-old is called Khalessi (a misspelling due to Estrada’s own mother mispronouncing the name), told The Daily Beast.

“It was kind of disappointing that her power trip took over. That was not cool.”

"Oh, it’s so strange!" Clarke told the New Yorker when asked what she thought of the name. "I would guess that they named them Khaleesi in the spirit of empowerment. And yet the character has taken this rather dark turn.

"It doesn’t take away from her strength, though—it doesn’t take away from her being an empowered woman," she added. "I think that, when you see the final episode, they’ll see there is a beginning and a middle and an end to her as a character. I think that there are people that will agree with her, because she’s a human being.

"And Khaleesi is a beautiful name. It’ll all be forgotten in a minute! People will just go, 'Oh, what an unusual name, how fabulous,' and the child will say, 'Yes, yes. My parents just really liked the name.'

Asked whether she would say anything to the girls named "Khaleesi", Clarke responded: "I would say, 'Work it, girls!' I’ve enjoyed being called that, and I think they will, too."

In another exit interview, Clarke said that she and co-star Kit Harington "cried" reading their final scenes together on the show.

Game of Thrones is available to watch on Sky Atlantic and NowTV in the UK

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