‘Cobra Kai’ Has Inspired An Otherwise Unlikely Popular Baby Name Of 2023

If you imagined that Cobra Kai — which will never die — would live on for future generations as an increasingly popular baby name, I would bet that you might not guess which name is pulling off that wizardry. Spoiler alert: It ain’t Anthony LaRusso.

TMZ recently revealed the coveted moniker (and “the second fastest-rising boy name”) that would never have appeared on the Social Security Administration’s annual hit baby-name list without the Netflix continuation of The Karate Kid franchise. That would be Chozen, the character who barely made it out of Season 5 alive after battling with Terry Silver and has transformed from antagonist to a hero and a much goofier character on the Netflix series. Actor Yuji Okumoto touched base with TMZ:

Yuji Okumoto tells TMZ he always thought the name was cool, but since Chozen was such a d-bag in the 1986 film, he never imagined parents would want to name their kid after him!

Yuji tells TMZ it was getting old hearing “a**hole,” among other unpleasant comments from random fans, so the character’s return has been awesome for several reasons.

It must be noted that, although currently rising, “Chozen” sits around #800 on the SSA list, so it sounds like there won’t be several Chozens in any given classroom like Twilight did to Bella awhile back. Yuji, however, is stoked and “[l]ooking forward to meeting the young Chozens in the future.” Same.

(Via TMZ & CBS)