Finally, celebrities are getting a bit weird with the baby names again, like they’re supposed to.

Weeds star Kevin Nealon and actress and wife Susan Yeagley welcomed their first child on January 29, according to StarPulse News, and promptly named him Gable Ness.

One source thought that Gable could be short for Gabriel, but they seem to be alone in that, and I think it’s a bit of stretch. And “Ness”? I mean, the first thing that comes to mind is the Loch Ness monster, followed by famed Prohibition-era Treasury Agent and Untouchable Eliot Ness, guns a-blazing.

Wait a minute — maybe that’s it. Nealon and Yeagley created a name out of famous surnames from the golden age of Hollywood: Clark Gable and Eliot Ness.

I hope they come up with a good nickname before Gable reaches kindergarten.

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Oh no, here we go again. I call it the Holly Hunter syndrome. Celebrities who won’t reveal their new baby’s name. What am I going to write about if that catches on?

 Anna Belknap, star of CBS’s CSI: NY, and actor-husband Eric Siegel, welcomed a baby daughter in Los Angeles on January 14, according to People. But no name yet!

If any readers know the name, please let me know. My keyboard is getting antsy.

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“Emerson Rose”

Emerson is an interesting name. The baby names site Behind the Name traces the roots back to a Germanic name, Almanric, which derives from “amal” meaning “work” and “ric” meaning “power”.

Emerson, in fact, means “son of Almanric”, in an extenuated sort of way. So why did Teri Hatcher and actor Jon Tenney name their daughter Emerson Rose, back in 1997? I’m not sure. The Rose part is pretty predictable — it seems that about one in ten celebrities give their daughters the middle name “Rose.”  But how about Emerson?

Well, “Almanric” apparently was the name of a sixth-century king of the Visigoths, as well as the name of a couple of kings of Jerusalem in the twelfth century, so maybe that’s what they were going for. Whatever the reason behind it, I’ll bet she goes by “Emmie” or a similar nickname today. Emerson is just a bit… cumbersome. Unless you’re a Visigoth king, of course.

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People is reporting that the fast-talking T.V. psychic (is that a real phrase, “T.V. psychic”?) — John Edward, and his wife, Sandra, welcomed a baby girl on January 25 in New York. Their daughter, who joins big brother Justin in the Edwards’ household, is named Olivia Gabriella.

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Yahoo! has just released its list of the Top Searches of 2006, and Suri Cruise, the daughter of Tom Crusie and Katie Holmes, born April 18, 2006, edged out Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt, daughter of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, born May 27, as the most popular celebrity baby name that was searched for on Yahoo! during the past year.

Sean Preston Federline, eldest son of Britney Spears and Kevin Federline came in at number 3, while his newborn little brother, Jayden James (formerly, and falsely, known as Sutton Pierce) came in right behind at number 4. Gwen Stefani and Gavin Rossdale’s son Kingston James rounded out the top five.

In the bottom half of the table, Madonna’s adopted African baby, David Banda, was the sixth most popular search term. Gwyneth Paltrow’s and Chris Martin’s baby Moses was number seven, and Brooke Shield’s son Grier was number eight.

Coming in at a disappointing number nine was Donald and Melania Trump’s young royal, Barron William Trump, while Anna Nicole Smith’s daughter, Dannielynn Hope, joined the high flying celebrity babies at number ten.

Donald ain’t gonna be happy with that. I can see him buying his own search engine and paying some people to click on it endlessly in order to win in 2007. I’m not sure, but MSN’s Windows Live Search should be up for sale pretty soon.

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“Dandelion”

Here’s what can sometimes happen when you’re a really famous parent, and you give your kid a weird name like “Dandelion.”

When they grow up, they change it.

That’s what Dandelion Richards, daughter of Rolling Stones legend Keith Richards, did. When their daughter was born, in 1972, Richards, and his girlfriend Anita Pallenberg, named her Dandelion. When she grew up (I resisted saying “bloomed,”) she changed her name to Angela.

She lives quietly in England with her husband Dominic Jennings, a carpenter. No word if she has dandelions in her garden.

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Posted on January 26th 2007 and posted to Keith Richards, CELEBRITY BABY NAMES | Comments(1)

“Speck Wildhorse”

John Mellencamp has been in the news recently, in a little contretemps with diehard fans, about the hit song “Our Country,” from his new album “Freedom’s Road”, getting heavy air time in a Chevy truck commercial.

Accused by some of “selling out,” (whatever that means in this day and age), Mellencamp, according to a recent article in the New York Times, is a bit upset, claiming he didn’t do it for the money, he just did it to get his song heard. OK.

Anyway, it seemed like a good time to look at one of the oddest celebrity baby names around - “Speck Wildhorse.” That’s the name that Mellencamp, and then-girlfriend, now-wife, Elaine Irwin, came up with, at the 1995 birth of their second son. (Their first son is named ”Hud”). 

I’m aware that Speck was the name of Mellencamp’s grandfather. But it’s really a diminutive sort of name. Could it get any smaller? Can the teenage jokes be far away? And as for “Wildhorse”… well, Mellencamp himself was smart enough to drop “Cougar” somewhere along the way. I wouldn’t be surprised if little Speck follows in his father’s hoofbeats in that regard, one of these days.

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Alternative rock musician and womens’ rights activist Ani DiFranco gave birth to a baby girl on January 20 in Buffalo, New York. DiFranco, and boyfriend Mike Napolitano, are naming their daughter Petah Lucia.

The name ‘Petah Lucia’ seems to reflect DiFranco’s Jewish-American heritage (her mother is Jewish, her father was of Italian descent) — Petah is a placename in Israel, and Lucia, of course, the Italian variant of Lucy.

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Posted on January 24th 2007 and posted to CELEBRITY BABIES, CELEBRITY BABY NAMES | Comments(1)

“Banjo”

Yes, that’s what it says: “Banjo.” Why would anyone name their child ‘Banjo?’ Fortunately, acclaimed Australian actress Rachel Griffiths, (HBO’s Six Feet Under; ABC’s Brothers and Sisters) opened up on the subject in 2004, shortly after Banjo’s birth, during an episode of an Australian talk show named, not coincidentally, Enough Rope.

It turns out that Griffith, and artist husband Andrew Taylor, were having trouble picking a name:

“Well, anyone that’s had a baby knows that the naming thing goes on and on and on, and you often end up a long way or not very far from your first name. We wanted something Australian. We just…we wanted a really good Australian name.”

So what happened next? How come ‘Banjo’ wasn’t named ‘Kangaroo,’ or ‘Wallaby,’ or ‘Mel Gibson,’ or something like that:

“One day I said Banjo as kind of a joke and my husband loved it. And then we started calling him that and it stuck.”

I just think that maybe that’s not the smartest way to name your kid. The ‘joke’ method. But’s who’s to say? Maybe Banjo will grow up and get the joke, and really love his name. And if he doesn’t, he can always change it to Sheila.

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Pfc. Jessica Lynch, who gained instant fame as the first woman P.O.W. of the Iraq war, and who was subsequently rescued by a United States Special Forces Team, has given birth to a baby girl.

Lynch, and her fiance Wes Robinson, welcomed a baby girl on January 19. The newborn will be named Dakota Ann.

Lynch and Robinson chose the name Dakota, a native American name meaning friendship or ally, in honor of Lynch’s friend Army Spc. Lori Piestewa, the first woman killed in combat in Iraq, who died in the same ambush in which Lynch was captured. Dakota was Piestewa’s middle name. She was part Hopi.

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