“Gemma Rose” 

Quite by chance, I picked out soccer star Michael Owen’s daughter, Gemma Rose, to serve as celebrity baby name of the day. It was then I noticed that yesterday’s choice also featured the middle name Rose.

A quick check of my database shows no less than five celebrity babies in 2006 alone with the name Rose as a middle name: actress Anna Gunn’s Eila Rose; soccer star John Terry’s Summer Rose; actor John Favreau’s Brighton Rose; comedian John Stewart’s Maggie Rose, and Melissa Etheridge’s Johnnie Rose.

The Social Security baby names stats show that the name Rose has been steadily declining in popularity for the past 90 years, slipping to # 333 in 2005, from # 15 in 1916. So what’s with all the roses among the celebs?

Maybe the name Rose is more popular as a middle name, which is also how English footballer Michael Owen and his wife Louise Bonsall chose to use it, when they named their daughter Gemma Rose in 2003. “Gemma” means “bud, or precious stone,” according to Alfred J. Kolatch’s Dictionary of First Names. That makes it a really nice combination with Rose, especially if you favor the “bud” meaning.

And you thought Michael Owen was only good for scoring goals.

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Photo Credit: Creative Commons License, AFP PHOTO / LLUIS GENE

Technorati Tags: celebrity baby names, baby names, celebrity gossip,celebrity babies, Melissa Etheridge, Anna Gunn, Jon Favreau, John Terry, John Stewart, Michael Owen

Posted on December 07th 2006 and posted to John Terry, Jon Favreau, Anna Gunn, CELEBRITY BABIES, Melissa Etheridge, NAME OF THE DAY, Jon Stewart, CELEBRITY BABY NAMES | Comments(0)

It’s twins for Chelsea and England soccer star John Terry, as his fiance Toni Poole gives birth to a boy-girl duo on May 20th in London. John and Toni continue the British tradition, exemplified recently by Ginger Spice (who named her daughter Bluebell Madonna), of choosing floral (though not necessarily flowery) baby names. So it’s no surprise that their new daughter is named Summer Rose. That’s actually a delightful name. Too bad they dropped the ball, so to speak, when it came to Summer’s brother, who received the uninspiring, nursery-rhyme-sounding name of Georgie John. You can’t win ‘em all, even when dad is a superstar for the great Chelsea F.C.

Photo by Photorazzi

Technorati Tags: celebrity baby names, baby names, John Terry baby name

Posted on May 26th 2006 and posted to John Terry, Toni Poole, CELEBRITY BABY NAMES | Comments(0)