This is my last post before New Year’s Eve. I’m taking a couple of days off, and I’ll be back online with my regular daily posts on January 3rd.

It’s been a great year for celebrity baby names and I hope 2007 will be just as much fun.

Enjoy the holidays, stay safe, and see you in the New Year.

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Bit off topic maybe, since she doesn’t (apparently) have a new one on the way, but I love this story from Baby Health Net about former Spice Girl Victoria Beckham facing the travails of motherhood. Apparently she is “massively-stressed” by being a mom, and reportedly complained to Britain’s Sun newspaper that there is always “the risk of baby sick down my front.”

Stressful indeed. But she goes on to say “I plan outfits while I’ m doing something else - getting ready for bed or taking a bath.” Thank God she’s found a way to deal with the nightmare. The source of all this trouble: the Beckham’s three sons, Romeo, Brooklyn, and Cruz.  

 

 

 

Victoria Beckham stressed out while shopping in Madrid

Photo by Photorazzi

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There’s a really big celebrity baby in Atlanta that needs a name — the 36 day-old panda at Zoo Atlanta. She weighed 3.8 pounds at birth, according to CNN. Check out that link — the panda is really cute!

This evening on CNN Anderson Cooper and Erica Hill tossed out the idea of people helping to name the panda — so I’m taking suggestions. What do you call a baby girl panda? Her Mom is named Lun Lun. Add your comments or send an email.

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I know it’s tough keeping up with all the news about celebrity babies. There are just so many of them, and sometimes it’s hard to keep it all straight. Is Marcia Cross expecting twins, or did she just have them? Or was that Elvis Costello and Diane Krall? Or was it Patrick Dempsey? I know that Britney had a baby, because we had a baby naming contest. It’s just so difficult sometimes to keep tabs on all these new arrivals and soon-to-be new arrivals.

Take heart. People has developed a really nifty timeline thingy that highlights the most important news of the day concerning what they call the Hollywood Baby Boom.

Today for example it shows the big news about Marcia; then the news about Whale Rider’s Keisha Castle-Hughes expecting; and the arrival of little Ramona for Gyllenhaal and Sarsgaard, and so on. But — I’d love to talk to the person who developed it. I can’t figure out how to use it properly. Is it just me? I was slow learning to tie my shoelaces, so maybe it is me. Whenever I hold my mouse over a certain spot on the timeline, trying to read what it says and decide if I want to click, a little white dot keeps moving along to a different spot.  I’m not sure why.

Anyway, it’s a cool little tool if you’re feeling overwhelmed by information overload about celebrity babies. And if you’re not overwhelmed, well, just keep reading this blog, where I promise never to create a little timeline thingy about celebrity babies.

Technorati Tags: celebrity baby names, baby names, Elvis Costello baby, Diane Krall baby, Marcia Cross twins, Patrick Dempsey twins, Maggie Gyllenhaal baby, Keisha Castle-Hughes baby

Posted on October 10th 2006 and posted to ODDS AND ENDS | Comments(1)

In the wake of her son’s tragic death from a drug overdose on September 10, Anna Nicole Smith has named her newborn daughter Dannielynn Hope.

According to published reports, toxicology tests indicate that Smith’s son, Daniel, died from an overdose of methadone and two antidepressant drugs.

The usual tone of this blog is one of light-hearted, tongue-in-cheek humor. Today, that is not appropriate. I simply hope that the birth of a new daughter, and the hope that comes with her birth, may in some tiny degree help soothe the undoubted vast pain of this tragedy.

Technorati Tags: celebrity baby names, baby names, Dannielynn Hope Smith, Anna Nicole Smith

I was unnerved to read on the Starpulse News Blog that British actor Rupert Everett (My Best Friend’s Wedding) is pitching the idea of a celebrity sperm bank. According to the story, Everett is convinced that the sperm of such luminaries as Brad Pitt, or the eggs of Angelina Jolie, could be sold for big dollars. I’m sure they could. We live in interesting times. But think of the consequences. And I don’t just mean lots of little Tom Cruises running around.

Pardon the pun, but this idea is likely to sow the seeds of considerable confusion when it comes to naming the “celebrity” offspring.

Is the offspring from a celebrity sperm bank truly a “celebrity baby?” Not really. A celebrity baby is more than just Hollywood sperm and eggs. It’s an event. It’s a baby registry at Petit Tresor. It’s when speculation about the baby’s name bumps news about the war in Iraq. It’s renting small African nations for a private maternity zone. It’s the cover of Vanity Fair magazine.

Most important, what possible name could the new parents bestow upon this half-famous, half-unknown infant? The hallmark of a celebrity baby is its wacky name. You’re not a total celebrity baby unless you’re called something like Shiloh, or Suri, or Moxie Crimefighter. But the offspring from a celebrity sperm bank can scarcely be named Bluebell Madonna or Jonas Rocket. They will have to grow up someplace like Cleveland, Ohio, not Beverly Hills. Think of the confusion this will create deep in the psyche of the poor child. To have the blood of Tom Cruise coursing through your veins, but to be named Bud? Or to have the genetic gifts of Paris Hilton, only to be named Linda? We’re talking serious therapy by the age of 9 at the latest.

So no, Mr. Everett. We all understand your desire to make a buck. And no doubt you think you’ve had the Big Idea. But it’s not going to fly. The world is confused enough. And we certainly don’t need a new breed of  “half-celebrities” with boring names growing up in Arkansas.

 Rupert Everett

 

 

 

 

 

Photograph by Photorazzi

 

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Posted on September 19th 2006 and posted to ODDS AND ENDS, Rupert Everett, CELEBRITY BABY NAMES | Comments(4)

Just back from my vacation, where I was unable to write my blog because I did not have reliable internet access. Where did I go, you say? The moon? Pluto? No, just to visit my folks, who are among the few remaining people on the planet who don’t have internet access.

So what do I find upon my return to civilization? Not much, when it comes to new baby names. Oh, sure, there have been a few minor celebrity baby births, but those aren’t the ones I generally blog about. I like to wax eloquently about the big name babies.

This actually brings up the whole question of ‘what is a celebrity,’ or, more accurately, ‘who is a celebrity?’ I know there are bloggers out there who think the 3rd baseman for the Bridgeport Pirates minor league baseball team is a celebrity, and accordingly, will breathlessly report on his wife’s delivery as if Madonna herself had given birth. Not me. I think that a celebrity is someone whom, if you asked 10 average people on the street, would be known by at least 5 of them. Minor league baseball players, unknown television personalities from Indonesia, talent-free singers who appeared once on American Idol, and other so-called ‘celebrities’ known only to the blogger and three of his or her best friends, just don’t cut it when it comes to real celebrity.

So, I’ll continue to scour my news sources, check my alerts, and otherwise keep my ear to the ground, for news of any real celebrity newborns. And when the next one arrives, as it surely will, I’ll be reporting on the latest in (real) weird celebrity baby names. You can be Suri I will.