Baby names authors Linda Rosenkrantz and Pamela Satran are popping up all over at the moment, promoting their new book The Baby Names Bible: The Ultimate Guide By America’s Baby Naming Experts (winner of the self-aggrandizing book title award, 2007).

Here’s an interview they did with the Chicago Sun-Times about celebrity baby names. It actually contains some interesting trivia about how particular baby names were chosen, including David and Victoria Beckham’s Brooklyn, Romeo, and Cruz; the now-split Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Phillippe’s Ava; Nicholas Cage’s now boring Kal-El story; Tom Cruise and Katie Holme’s Suri, especially the pointy-nosed bit, which looks like they got from my posts; and the ever-fascinating Penn Jillette-Moxie Crimefighter saga.

One thing I didn’t know — Gwen Stefani and Gavin Rossdale bought a hat with the name Kingston on it several years ago, while they were recording in Jamaica. They were planning that far ahead. That’s what I call being on top of your celebrity baby name planning.

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“Kal-El”

Who had an ego so big that he had to have the only boy on the planet named Kal-El? (Superman’s Kryponite birth name). You got it, Nicolas Cage.

Cage has been quoted as saying about his son’s name: “I’ll bet you within five or 10 years, there will be a lot more Kal-Els. It just happens that my son is the only one right now.”

Er… I don’t think so, Mr. Cage. After all, there aren’t too many Moon Units, Moxie Crimefighters, or Pilot Inspektors running around. Dumb names are dumb names. To name your kid after a comic book hero is just plain silly, and most people are smarter than that.

The most significant part of Cage’s quote is the last bit: “my son is the only one right now.” It’s the same urge that makes many celebrities come up with really unusual names — they do it for themselves. It’s an ego thing.

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“Violet”

Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner had their daughter Violet baptized on Christmas Eve, in Virginia, where Garner hails from. It seemed like a good time to nominate Violet for celebrity baby name of the day.

Unlike tomorrow’s celebrity baby name parent, Nicolas Cage, Affleck and Garner went the traditional route, and I’m sure Violet will thank them in years to come. Violet, named of course for the flower, is a classic name, and one which was very popular in Victorian England. But such classic names are making a comeback, especially in England, but also, to a lesser extent, in the United States.

Affleck and Garner are on the leading edge of a trend to give babies, even celebrity babies, more classic names. ‘Rose’ was certainly the most popular floral celebrity baby name of 2006, but I’m confident we’ll see an expansion of traditional names in 2007.

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Starpulse.com is running a story about actor Nicolas Cage defending the name that he and his wife Alice Kim gave to their son, who is about to celebrate his first birthday. The little guy, you may remember, was named “Kal-El,” which, you may not remember, was Superman’s Kryptonian name.

Cage apparently believes in the name because it stands for “something good.” He predicts that some time in the future, there will be lots of little Kal-Els. And his kid was first. (And therein lies the true motivation, I  think).

 

Photo by Photorazzi

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