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Exotic baby names en vogue as celebrities lead the way |
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Written by asap
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Tuesday, 06 March 2007 |
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Tom and Katie: Pretty normal names, right? The kind of names that fit right into any third-grade classroom, that don’t scare away potential blind dates, that even look fine on a marquee if you grow up and become a movie star.
Yet when Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes had a baby, they named her not Emily or Abigail or some other Katie-equivalent, but Suri. A name nobody until now ever heard of. And why? Because they’re movie stars, and like getting married when you’re eight months pregnant and wiggling into a size zero a month after giving birth, giving your child a really attention-getting name is something that movie stars do.
Think of an exotic name as the ultimate Hollywood accessory, the kind of rarified bauble that can’t be bought or even, like an Oscar, won, but must be selected with the help of taste and discernment. What’s more, unlike a Balenciaga bag, a name lasts forever, acting as an eternal symbol of one’s sophistication, ingenuity, and cool — or lack thereof. No wonder celebrities seem to feel the pressure to come up with a name that’s more distinctive and unusual than those used by us ordinary folk.
Therefore: Suri. And Shiloh Nouvel, daughter of Brangelina, sister of Zahara and Maddox. And Kal-El, son of Nicolas Cage, whose wife wanted something “more unusual and beautiful” than the Kyle he initially suggested.
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OTHER STARS AS INSPIRATION
In their search for superhuman names, many celebrities these days are also looking to a traditional Hollywood source: the names of other stars. One-time SNLer Kevin Nealon recently named his baby son Gable, as in Clark, following the lead of Patricia Arquette’s Harlow, Lauren Ambrose’s Orson, and Greg Kinnear’s Audrey, not to mention a whole flock of starbaby Avas — the latter almost instantaneously picked up on by non-celeb parents and now in the national Top Ten.
Iconic music names of the past have also been adopted by current media magnets, in particular Elvis, Presley, Hendrix, Dylan, Jagger, Mingus and Lennon. Former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell gave her newborn daughter Bluebell the middle name of her musical hero, Madonna.
In other acts of hero worship, Jack White’s baby daughter is named Scarlett, as in Johannsen and O’Hara; Russell Crowe’s infant son is Tennyson, after the poet, and Donald Trump’s new baby is named Barron — the name of the founder of the Hilton hotel chain.
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OTHER SOURCES
Some stars make a name distinctive by bending the gender: Elisabeth Shue’s new daughter is Agnes Charles, Ziggy Marley’s girl is named Judah, Angie Harmon and Jason Sehorn have daughters Avery and Finley. Melissa Etheridge and Sean “Diddy” Combs both had twins — no, not together — one half of which were named Johnnie Rose and Jessie James. And in case it’s not clear, those are both girls.
Hollywood parents had a bumper crop of twins this past year, all with distinctively distinctive names. Patrick Dempsey, aka TV’s Dr. McDreamy, has two newborn boys named Darby and Sullivan, Angela Bassett and Courtney B. Vance are the parents of Bronwyn Golden and Slater Josiah, while Diana Krall and Elvis Costello named their twin sons Dexter and retro-cool Frank, as in Sinatra.
Another Hollywood tactic for finding a distinctive name is to pick one that isn’t really a name, but rather a place or even just a word. The middle name of Diddy’s other newborn twin daughter is Star, for example, while singer Nivea’s baby is Navy. Gwen Stefani and Gavin Rossdale’s son is Kingston, inspired by the Jamaica city where she recorded Rock Steady, and John Favreau has a Brighton Rose.
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JUST HOW UNIQUE?
But even veering off the beaten name track doesn’t guarantee uniqueness: two celebrities had babies named Ace last year, two have Deacons, and three have Trues. Some names, in fact, seem to be nearly epidemic in Hollywood, if nowhere else. Sofia Coppola’s new daughter Romy joins the Romys of both Matt Lauer and Ellen Barkin along with Cate Blanchett’s and Debra Messing’s sons named Roman, and Posh and Beck’s along with Jon Bon Jovi’s little Romeos.
Even those stars who choose more traditional names rarely pick the ordinary Jacobs and Emmas. Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin, for instance, who suffered a fair amount of ridicule when they named their daughter the new-fangled Apple, went in completely the other direction for their son, resurrecting the hoary Moses.
Heath Ledger and Michelle Williams are the parents of Matilda, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Peter Sarsgaard gave birth to Ramona, and Julia Roberts has the famous Hazel and Phinnaeus, who sound like a pair of 19th century hot air ballooners.
And then there are the names that just seem to be (even louder) cries for attention.
Sinead O’Connor’s new son is named Yeshna, for instance. Woody Harrison’s baby daughter is Makani Ravello. And Penn Gillette has a Zolten, sister to Moxie Crime Fighter.
So how far do you have to go to pick a name no other star has ever chosen? All the way, it seems, to Tom and Katie.
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INSPIRING REGULAR FOLK
Several names of stars or their babies are climbing the popularity ratings for regular kids, according to the Social Security Administration. For example, Ava shot from the 847th most popular baby name in the United States in 1991 to the 9th most popular in 2005, the most recent year for which the rankings are available. Meanwhile, Angelina rose from 299th to 43rd in the same period, while Ashton ascended from 361st to 107th.
Among other famous names that have risen in popularity in recent years, along with their current rankings, are: Jada, 75; Audrey, 77; Jaden, 88; Eva, 129; Leonardo, 186; Paris, 206; Keira, 232; Reese, 237; Maddox, 244; Jude, 306; Joaquin,347 and Scarlett, 421.
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Linda Rosenkrantz and Pamela Redmond Satran are the authors of “The Baby Name Bible,” just out from St. Martin’s Press, their eight baby-naming guide. Their web site is www.babynamebible.com. | Only registered users can write comments.
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