Jon Heder Baby Arrives

May 22, 2007

jon heder photo Whatever Napoleon Dynamite star Jon Heder and his wife Kirsten have been up to since their baby was born, probably in early April, they haven’t been hitting the baby name books. The new arrival for the pair — their first child, is a baby girl. According to People, they named her Evan Jane.

This is a bold step by the Heders, since Evan is plainly a boy’s name. In fact, it’s the Welsh variant of the name John. If you look at the Social Security Administration’s Popular Baby Names page, you’ll find that Evan has been in the top 100 most popular boys’ names for more than 20 years. In 2006, it was number 42 for boys.

As a girls’ name, by contrast, Evan has never appeared in the top 1000 (that’s thousand). To put it plainly,Â Evan isÂ a boy’s name. It’s even more strange when you see it paired with Jane, which is about as traditional a girls’ name as you can get.

I’m wondering if there’s a family connection to using Evan here. Heder, who starred recently with Will Ferrell in Blades of Glory,Â is a member of the Mormon church, where family dynasty means a great deal.