Strollerderby : celebrity baby names

Odd Couple, Redux

Amy S.F. Lutz — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 13:02:00 GMT

Everyone knows the first rule of baby naming is, don't set your kids up to be made fun of their entire lives. Which is why we castigate celebrities for naming their kids Zuma, and Kal-El, Pilot and Apple.

But just as important as what you name each individual kid is how your kids' names sound together. One of my husband's best friends is named Randolph, his brother is named Andrew, and the parents swore they never thought their boys would be called Randy and Andy.

So, Gillian Anderson, what in God's name were you thinking when you named your new baby, born on October 15, Felix? Is it possible that neither you, nor baby daddy Mark Griffiths, has ever heard of the Odd Couple? Because Anderson's other son, who's almost two, is named - you guessed it - Oscar.

Perhaps Anderson was too busy being clever to notice. X-Files fans immediately pointed out that Felix's name is an anagram of X-File. Ooooh, spooky.

Lisa Marie Presley Reveals Her Twins' Names

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 21:00:00 GMT

Lisa Marie Presley and Michael Lockwood, the parents of healthy newborn twins, have jumped on the unusual baby names bandwagon. But in this case, I find their choices prettily creative (as opposed to say, Flutenoy and Bakusy, or LeDryer and LeWasher).

Presley and Lockwood have revealed that their twin girls will go by Finley and Harper. They will keep the King’s last name.

Elvis himself had a twin named Jesse, who died at birth.

Photo: Getty Images

The 10 Craziest--er, Most Creative--Baby Names

What was your fake baby name?

Brett Singer — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 15:00:00 GMT

The most recent Babble List features 33 of the dumbest celebrity baby names.

This reminded me of something my wife and I had some fun with before our kids were born: fake baby names to torture the grandparents.

While she was pregnant, the wife and I came up with ridiculous choices for names and tried to convince our parents that said names were under consideration for our offspring. Some examples are Butch Huskey Singer, Wade Boggs Singer, and Pincus Tyrone Singer (the latter only if we had a girl, of course). Other not serious choices were Roc Singer or Oprah Singer. (Rock? Opera? Get it? Anyway…)

I'm curious – does anyone else do this? Or are we alone in our attempt to amuse ourselves?

image: checkoutmycards.com

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(Grey's) Anatomy of a Baby Naming Trend

Madeline Holler — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 23:04:00 GMT

What kind of embarrassing is it when you realize that you named your kid after a TV character? Because nobody does that on purpose, right? It’s TV. It’s fleeting. It’s getting canceled next season. Nobody actually says, “We’re naming her Olivia. We’re big fans of Law & Order SVU!”

So all you parents of an Addison under the age of 2, tell me: where’d you come up with that name? ABC Thursdays, 9 p.m./8 central? That’s what I thought, you Grey’s Anatomy automatons! Well, prepare yourselves for cast reunions at your weekly playgroups, because your Addison is going to be fighting over crayons with a lot of Baileys, Izzys (Izzies?), Callies and Jacksons.

The fastest rising baby names in 2007 have some kind of connection to Grey’s Anatomy and its stars, according to Baby Center. Let’s start with Addison, the name of a hot OB/Gyn who was spun off onto her own series Private Practice. She jumped 20 spots in the name rankings to land in the Top 10 names.

And Isobel, the character played by Katherine Heigl, moves an average of six spots a year since the show’s launch in 2005.

Bailey, the name of the no-nonsense doctor with a heart of gold, was the fastest rising, jumping 39 spots.

Callie, new to the Top 100 list, is, don’t you know, the name of Dr. Torres on the show.

Over in the land of boys, Jackson jumped 10 spots and is now in the Top 10. Who’s Jackson on the show? Well, this is where Baby Center’s arguments for the show’s influence gets tenuous.

They say: Actor Justin Chambers (who plays Dr. Alex Karev) has a daughter named Isabella and a son named Jackson.

You know, I’ve been in the baby name business for at least seven years now and let me tell you, I’ve met enough pre-2005 Jackson’s to fully staff a city hospital starting in the year 2020.

While I’m at it, there has always been at least one Isobel in every park too – though rather than Izzie, the pre-2005 nom de play of choice was always Bella.

So maybe Grey’s Anatomy isn’t as influential on names as the website argues. Maybe … maybe! … writers for Grey’s Anatomy’s pilot went to a kid's birthday party in 2002 and named the characters after the guests who brought the best presents.

Now, tell me. Why did you name your baby Isobel?

50 Craziest Baby Names, and a Few More Thrown in For Good Measure

Alisyn — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 13:34:00 GMT

Is it just me, or does anyone else find the current trend of giving babies outrageous names totally awesome? I never get tired of the subject of baby names anyway, but with the floodgates opening on food names (Apple, Honey), made-up names (Jermagesty), technology-inspired names (Rocket, Audio, Pilot), and place names (London, Paris, Brooklyn) there are almost too many choose from. What is it about having a baby, the oldest tradition in the world, that makes people go nuts trying to find a way to set themselves apart from everyone else? I just love that we've gone from having about 100 acceptable boy names to choose from, to naming our young men Kal-El. It's nuts!

The British Times Online recently compiled their own "50 Craziest Baby Names" list, and while they left out a few notables (Zowie Bowie, Peaches Honeyblossom, Little Pixie and Denim come to mind), they hit the nail right on the head with others (Princess Tiaamii leaves me utterly speechless). With kids walking around with names like Poet and Ocean, though, it seems kind of silly to have kids named Willow and Liberty on the "Crazy" list. Those sound down right vanilla these days.