As Anderson Cooper and Erica Hill might say: “what were they thinking?”

Husband and wife stars Natasha Richardson and Liam Neeson, seen here at the New York premiere of Dreamgirls last December, named their second son Daniel Jack.

It’s hard to believe he hasn’t already had his fill of whiskey jokes.

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Posted on September 17th 2007 and posted to NAME OF THE DAY | Comments(0)

Billy Ray Cyrus and Destiny Hope ‘Miley’ Cyrus (aka Hannah Montana) are in the news a lot these days, so it seemed like a good time to look at that name: Destiny Hope ‘Miley’ Cyrus. How does anyone come up with a mouthful like that?

Actually, the explanation is quite simple, and it says something about the power of names as destiny.

Cyrus and his wife Leticia named their newborn daughter Destiny Hope because they felt she was destined for great things. Boy, were they right, at least so far.

‘Miley,’ as most people are now aware, is a pet form of the name ‘Smiley,’ which is what the Cyrus’s began calling their destined-for-greatness daughter at an early age. The reason, of course, is that little Destiny Hope was always smiling.

Perhaps she had glimpsed the future, and was just practicing for the cameras.

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Posted on June 29th 2007 and posted to Billy Ray Cyrus,Miley Cyrus,NAME OF THE DAY | Comments(10)

It was a toss-up whether to pick Poppy Honey, the name of Jamie Oliver’s eldest daughter, or Daisy Boo, the name of his youngest, as celebrity baby name of the day. In the end, Poppy Honey won out, largely because of the culinary part of her name.

Wildly popular in his native Britain, Jamie Oliver, also known as The Naked Chef, and his wife Juliette Norton, were unlikely to give their offspring anything but unusual, cute names. A natural promoter, Oliver has rightly won recognition (in the form of a 2003 Member of the British Empire appointment by H.M. Queen Elizabeth), in part for his work on behalf of banning junk food from British schools.

Oliver has also created a chain of restaurants called Fifteen, now open in London, Amsterdam, Cornwall, and Melbourne, which provide jobs to disadvantaged youth.

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Posted on June 22nd 2007 and posted to NAME OF THE DAY | Comments(0)

The creative use of an apostophe is always a good way to spice up a name, as R & B singer Lil’ Mo (born Cynthia Loving) would no doubt be the first to agree. It should come as no surprise that Lil’ Mo continued her personal naming tradition by adding an apostrophe to the names of both her daughters.

First was Heaven Love’on, born in August, 2002, to Lil’ Mo and husband Al Stone. Three years later, in February, 2005, Lil’ Mo’s second daughter was born — Lil’ Mo and Stone (since divorced) named her God’Iss Love.

It’s intriguing to think what Lil’ Mo might come up with if there’s a third child in the picture some day.

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Posted on June 06th 2007 and posted to CELEBRITY BABY NAMES,NAME OF THE DAY | Comments(4)

 

From time to time, I like to pick out a “name of the day,” especially when the flood of new celebrity babies slows to a trickle for a day or so. At times like this, I can  either report on some really obscure “celebrity” birth, such as a new baby for the weather announcer from the early morning show on the second-rated television station in Brisbane, Australia, or I can focus on what makes this blog special – real celebrity baby names.

So let’s get to it. Why would anyone name their son Seven?

I honestly don’t know. But that’s what hip-hop/jazz artist Erykah Badu named her son, who was born in 1997. I can only assume that the number 7 has some special meaning for Badu. Or else for the father, Badu’s ex-boyfriend, André 3000 of OutKast.

Frequently readers of this blog come to my rescue when I don’t know the story behind a name. This may be one of those times. If you know why Erykah Badu named her son Seven, please let me know!

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Posted on May 31st 2007 and posted to CELEBRITY BABIES,NAME OF THE DAY | Comments(20)

“Hopper”

It’s Friday afternoon, a good time for clicking around the web looking at other blogs and celebrity gossip sites.  I came across a very funny website called Innocent English. Their “humorous signs” section alone is worth a visit.

Naturally, being a site about English language mistakes, they have a page dedicated to celebrity baby names. Actually, I’m surprised they don’t have a whole page dedicated to Penn Jillette, but that’s another story.

Which brings me to the name Hopper. Not surprisingly, the name chosen by actor Sean Penn and actress Robin Wright Penn for their son in 1993 makes an appearance on the Innocent English list. And why wouldn’t it?

I admire Sean Penn tremendously as an actor. I think he is an absolute genius at his craft. But when it comes to naming a kid? Forget about it.

As it says on Dictionary.com, a hopper is a person or thing that hops. Or it’s a funnel-shaped thingy that you can pour grain through. It can even be the name of an insect, or a kangaroo. But not, most definitely not, the name for a child. I dread to think what he went through in grade school. The only thing that might have saved him is that most of his Hollywood classmates have weird names also.

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Posted on March 30th 2007 and posted to NAME OF THE DAY,Robin Wright Penn,Sean Penn | Comments(1)

Mention celebrity baby names, and the name Peaches Geldof is sure to surface. In fact, her full name is Peaches Honeyblossom Michelle Charlotte Angel Vanessa Geldof, and she will be 18 years old in a couple of weeks.

Here she is enjoying London Fashion Week recently, and, from what I understand, the second daughter of singer/activist Bob Geldof and Paula Yates cuts quite a swath across the London social scene.

At the tender age of 17, Peaches is living proof that all those naysayers who claim weird celebrity names will handicap a child know nothing of the rarified world of celebrity, where a name like Peaches is a positive asset.

The sister of Fifi, Pixie, and Heavenly Hiraani Tiger Lily, she has already appeared in her own T.V. reality show; written for a leading newspaper and magazine; made a documentary on Islam; gained some fame as a D.J., and of course, broken into London’s fashion world as — well, as a trendsetter.

All that before she can legally order a lager and lemonade in her local pub!

The moral of this story is — don’t let anyone tell you that a celebrity baby name is a handicap. Quite the contrary. If you’ve got it, flaunt it. (Your celebrity baby name).

Unless you live in Podunk, Iowa, and work at the local video store. In which case, I’d keep it quiet, if I were you.

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Posted on March 01st 2007 and posted to CELEBRITY BABIES,CELEBRITY BABY NAMES,NAME OF THE DAY | Comments(4)

“Ocean”

I think very highly of Forest Whitaker. He has already won a Golden Globe and a Screen Actors’ Guild Award, not to mention an Oscar nod, for his role as Idi Amin in The Last King of Scotland. He has turned in consistently excellent performances over an illustrious career to date.

So what’s with the weird baby names? He named his first son Ocean, as in the water. I get that Whitaker’s first name is Forest, as in trees. But is there any real need to continue the “back-to-nature” tradition from one generation to the next?

But Forest didn’t stop at Ocean. He went on to name his daughters Sonnet and True (with his wife, actress Keisha Nash). And Keisha Nash brought her own bit of nature to the party in the Whitaker-Nash house, as her daughter from a previous relationship is named Autumn.

So let me see. We’ve got Ocean, Autumn, Sonnet, and True. That’s not your average brood by any stretch. In fact, it’s very 1970s California, in my opinion. But I’ll say this for Mr. Whitaker and his baby naming strategy. At least he’s consistent. Which is more than you can say for Apple and Moses.

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Posted on February 22nd 2007 and posted to CELEBRITY BABIES,CELEBRITY BABY NAMES,Forest Whitaker,NAME OF THE DAY | Comments(0)

“Iset”

About the only interesting thing I can say about “Iset” is “how do you pronounce it?” And even that question is not so compelling, since the name is so, well, “small.”

Surprising then that it was chosen by one of the towering figures of Hollywood, Wesley Snipes, and his wife, Korean painter Nikki Park, for their daughter, born in 2001.

I could not locate the name “Iset” in any of my usual baby naming sources. Maybe it’s a Korean name. Is it or isn’t it? (I couldn’t resist that one).

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Posted on February 16th 2007 and posted to CELEBRITY BABIES,CELEBRITY BABY NAMES,NAME OF THE DAY,Wesley Snipes | Comments(0)

“Malu Abeni Valentine”

No major celebs have given birth in the last few days, and I was looking for a timely topic. Hey! How about Valentine’s Day-related celeb names!

Malu Abeni Valentine was the name chosen by Talking Heads founder, and all-round multi-media artist, David Byrne, and his then-wife Adelle Lutz, for their new daughter back in 1990.

Malu does not appear in most of the baby name websites, but one source gave it as a Hawaiian name meaning “peacefulness.”

Abeni is a Yoruban African name, which roughly translates as “we asked, we received.”

And Valentine, the name of the week, derives from Latin, and means “strong, vigorous.”

Saint Valentine was a third century martyr. His feast day fell around the same time as the Roman fertility festival, Lupercalia — hence, according to some sources, the association with all things romantic.

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Posted on February 12th 2007 and posted to CELEBRITY BABIES,CELEBRITY BABY NAMES,NAME OF THE DAY | Comments(0)