In 2002, Acclaim Entertainment held a baby name contest. The video game company offered $10,000 in savings bonds to the first family to welcome a baby on September 1 and name it “Turok” after a the dinosaur-hunting protagonist of the video game Turok: Evolution, set to be released the same day.

Did anyone take them up on the offer? I don’t know. Acclaim Entertainment went out of business in 2004, so there’s no one around to ask.

I haven’t been able to track down any tykes named Turok, but that doesn’t mean they don’t exist. After all, plenty of babies are named for video game characters nowadays, and some parents do take name contests seriously. Ten babies were named named Iuma in 2000 because of a contest, for instance.

Do you know anyone named Turok? (If so, was his/her name inspired by this contest?)

Source: “Name your baby ‘Turok,’ win $10,000.” USA Today 28 Aug. 2002.