RZA, Spider, & More Unique Celebrity Baby Names
Celebrity baby names aren’t just fodder for inspiration: Whether they realize it or not, we are forever pitting celebs against each other in an imaginary competition of who can come up with the most unusual baby name. The contenders are many and impressive. Though many famous parents who have welcomed babies in the last couple of years have been relatively tame in their name choices, we have to give thanks for the likes of Usain Bolt, for twin-baby names of Saint and Thunder; Ashley Tisdale and husband Christopher French, who welcomed their daughter, Jupiter Iris; and Samira Wiley and Lauren Morelli, for their twist on two classics for their baby girl, George Elizabeth.
Thunder, George, and Jupiter now join a generation that already includes Powerful Queen, Lyra Antarctica, Buddy Dessert, X Æ A-12, and Raddix Madden. And all of them are part of a pack that stretches back to the likes of Moon Unit Zappa (the daughter of the late musician Frank Zappa), showing us just how ahead of the curve Hollywood kids have been for generations now.
Choosing a name for your child can be a thrill, especially if you get creative with it (although we do advise steering clear of naming your babies Covid and Corona. Yikes). But it can also be overwhelming — the name will follow your little for the rest of their life. Plus, when it comes to names, everyone seems to have an opinion.
The good news? Baby names are constantly changing and evolving, which means you have a lot of options out there. And luckily for us regular folks, celebs tend to be major pioneers in choosing truly out-there baby names people love to discuss — plus unusual names that are just super-cool and avant-garde.
And hey, there’s no shame in getting some baby-name inspo from Celebland and stashing it away for your own kids (whether they’re currently gestating or just imagined in your distant future). If you started considering fruit names after Gwyneth Paltrow named her daughter Apple or ran through all the colors of the rainbow when Beyoncé named her daughter Blue, we won’t judge.
For every beyond-weird celebrity baby name out there, there’s another one that’s just wacky and cool and beautiful enough, we might even pick it for our own kids. You decide which is which ahead.
A version of this article was originally published in August 2016.
(Photo by Casey Sykes/Getty Images.)
The girlfriend of late Oregon football star Spencer Webb named Kelly Kay recently welcomed their newborn son, and to honor her late boyfriend, she gave their son his nickname in college: Spider, per People.
(Photo by Christopher Hook/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images.)
On April 1, Kaley Cuoco announced that she and Tom Pelphrey welcomed their “little miracle” into the world. She posted a series of photos with the caption, “💓 3-30-23 💓 Introducing, Matilda Carmine Richie Pelphrey, the new light of our lives! We are overjoyed and grateful for this little miracle 💓 Thank you to the doctors , nurses , family and friends who have helped us immensely over the last few days. We are blessed beyond belief 💗 @tommypelphrey didn’t think I could fall even more in love with you , but I did 💗.”
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On Jan 21, Kylie Jenner revealed to the world in a series of Instagram photos that she and her ex Travis Scott have named their son Aire Webster — previously having named him Wolf, but then deciding it just didn’t fit. We not only love the uniqueness, but also the natural element tie it has with his older sister Stormi.
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Nick Cannon has nine living children named Monroe and Moroccan (whose mother is Mariah Carey), Golden, Powerful Queen, and Rise Messiah (with Brittany Bell), Zion and Zillion (with Abby De La Rosa), Legendary (with Bri Tiesi), and Onyx (with LaNisha Cole). His son Zen, whom Cannon shared with Alyssa Scott, passed away in 2021 after a brain cancer diagnosis. He also has two currently on the way!
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YouTuber and singer Trisha Paytas gave birth to her first child on September 14, 2022, announcing it with a sweet series of photos on Instagram. But it may be her choice of baby names that catches the eye more than the actual baby: Malibu Barbie Paytas-Hacmon. But hey, Barbiecore baby names are definitely trending, so maybe she’s just way ahead of the curve!
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In 2022, rapper Eve and Maximillion Cooper welcomed their first child together. “Wilde Wolf Fife Alexander Somers Cooper,” she wrote on Instagram, sharing a photo of the boy. “Words can’t describe this feeling.”
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Kylie Jenner and Travis Scott share two children: Daughter Stormi, who was born in 2018, and a son (formerly known as Wolf), who was born in 2022.
Jenner once explained the origins of her daughter’s name: “I looked up names and I saw Storm and I really like that, but i wanted her to have an ‘ie’ at the end of her name like me. Kylie and Stormie. So, it was that at first and when I was pregnant I used to call her Stormi when I would talk to her in my belly and it just always felt right. I had one more name that I liked. I had two names that I honestly liked better than Stormi, but when I had her I just felt like she chose her own name and I just couldn’t imagine any other name other than Stormi.”
No word yet on why the couple chose the name Wolf for their latest addition, but soon after his birth, they announced that his name wasn’t Wolf any more. Still no word on what it is — but we’re betting it’s unique!
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In November 2021, Criss Angel and his wife Shaunyl Benson welcomed their new baby, a girl named Illusia Angelina Sarantakos. The couple already share young sons Johnny Crisstopher and Xristos Yanni.
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Scarlett Johansson and Colin Jost welcomed their first child together in 2021 and the baby’s name is so cool: Cosmo.
“Ok ok we had a baby,” the Saturday Night Live star wrote on Instagram after the birth. “His name is Cosmo. We love him very much. Privacy would be greatly appreciated. Jost later shared that his mother was first confused by the moniker. “I don’t know if she thought it was kind of like a hippie thing?” he said during an appearance on Late Night with Seth Meyers. Over time, however, Jost’s mom learned to love it. We do too!
Johansson also shares 7-year-old daughter Rose Dorothy with her ex-husband Romain Dauriac.
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In late 2021, Amanda Knox and boyfriend Christopher Robinson welcomed their first child, a daughter named Eureka Muse. Knox, who in 2015 was acquitted for the murder of her British roomate Meredith Kercher in Italy, announced the birth on Instagram. “I know that I cannot 100% protect my daughter from the kind of treatment I’ve suffered, but I’m doing the best I can,” she wrote. “Which is why this will be the only picture of her I will ever share on social media.” Knox gave thanks to her supporters on she and Robinson’s “journey to parenthood” adding, “Thank you for believing in us.”
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The Handmaid’s Tale star Samira Wiley and her wife, Orange Is the New Black writer-producer Lauren Morelli, announced the birth of their daughter George Elizabeth on Mother’s Day 2021, though she was actually born on April 11. Though no one would call either first name very original, this is the first time we’ve seen them combined — and for a girl. George does follow other celebrity daughters with traditional “boy” names, such as Jessica Simpson’s daughter Maxwell and Blake Lively’s daughter James.
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Estranged couple Kanye West and Kim Kardashian gave their children wonderfully unique names: North, Saint, Chicago, and Psalm.
“When North was born, I know that North West is a very unique name,” Kardashian told LIVE with Kelly and Ryan. “Well, all my kids’ names are very unique, but I didn’t name her for maybe three or four days. I looked at her and I said a prayer with her. I was like, ‘I pray to God you can handle your name. I hope you are this name that I’m choosing.’ I mean, it was really emotional for me.”
She added, “you can’t go higher than North.”
Meanwhile, Kardashian said of her second born, “My son Saint, he is a saint. It’s like he literally has become his name. He is an angel.” For her youngest children, the couple chose the name Chicago for West’s hometown and in Hebrew, Psalm means “Song”
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The Masked Dancer host Ashley Tisdale and her husband Christopher French named their daughter Jupiter, after the planet and the king of the Roman gods, and the middle name Iris, after the flower and the Greek word for rainbow.
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Ed Sheeran and Cherry Seaborn welcomed a baby girl in 2020 and named her Lyra, which means “harp” in Greek. Quite an appropriate musical baby name for Sheeran’s daughter. The reasoning behind Antarctica, though? We’re not sure!
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Pin these weird and wonderful celebrity baby names.
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Retired Olympic champion Usain Bolt — who is considered the greatest sprinter of all time — and his partner Kasi Bennett share daughter Olympia Lightning Bolt. The couple also has twin boys, one named Saint Leo, and the other (wait for it): Thunder.
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Divorced couple Drew Barrymore and Will Kopelman decided on their first daughter’s name Olive after reading in a book that she was the size of an olive when the actress was three months pregnant, she told Ellen DeGeneres.
Barrymore also revealed to DeGeneres why they chose the name Frankie. “It was just a name that came to my husband and I a few months before she was born, and we were sort of like, ‘I think this is it,’” she said. “And then we gave ourselves room to change our mind, but we never did. My mother-in-law’s maiden name is Franco and I love her so much that it reminds me of her as well.”
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The Bachelor stars Arie Luyendyk, Jr. and Lauren Burnham Luyendyk welcomed a set of twins in June 2021: son Lux (derived from Latin meaning “light”) and daughter Senna, whose name is of Arabic origin meaning “brightness.” They also share daughter Alessi, whose Greek-rooted name is derived from Alexis, meaning “defender.”
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Brie Bella welcomed her baby boy in 2020, naming him Buddy after his late grandfather. His middle name? Dessert.
“For his middle name, I really wanted to incorporate my family,” Brie told People. “I wanted Buddy to have something of my grandmother. Her last name, her maiden name, is Dessert. When you look at it, people are going to say Dessert, because it’s French. But it’s pronounced ‘desert.’”
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Grimes and ex-partner Elon Musk announced their son’s birth in May. His name, X Æ A-12, raised eyebrows — and ended up not being entirely legal in the state of California. So they changed it to X Æ A-Xii, before eventually settling on X AE A-XII Musk. Less than two years later, they annouced the birth of their second child together, a daughter who they named Exa Dark Sideræl.
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Jenna Dewan and Steve Kazee’s first child together was born in March 2020, and his name tells quite a story. “Callum: Gaelic for dove because he has been so sweet and peaceful since landing in our arms,” Kazee wrote on Instagram. “Michael: My middle name.”
As for Rebel: “I wanted a way to honor my mother,” Kazee added. “Her name was Reba but from a very young age her father called her Rebel. … And so … Callum Michael Rebel Kazee was born.”
While Callum’s big sis Everly landed quite the fairy-tale-sounding name when she was born back in 2013. Dewan and her former spouse Channing Tatum call her Ev for short.
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Cameron Diaz and husband Benji Madden welcomed their baby daughter Raddix Madden in 2020.
Pamela Redmond Satran of Nameberry told SheKnows, “Raddix could be a variation on the established Slavic name Radek, which means ‘happy,’ or it could be an invented name combining the ‘rad’ (as in cool) prefix with the trendy x ending.”
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Joanna and Chip Gaines’ fifth child, Crew, was born in 2018, joining siblings Drake, Ella Rose, Duke, and Emmie.
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Beyoncé and Jay Z’s eldest child is Blue Ivy, who was born in 2012. While her parents haven’t publicly explained why they chose this name, Beyoncé once posted an excerpt from the book of essays A Field Guide to Getting Lost on which many believe inspired them to select it.
When the singer gave birth to twins — one girl and one boy — in 2017, she and Jay-Z named them Rumi and Sir.
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Actress Teresa Palmer and her partner, Mark Webber share four children with nature-inspired names: Forest Sage, Poet Lake, Bodhi Rain, and Prairie Moon.
“Introducing our daughter, Prairie Moon Palmer, who was born just as the sun rose on Tuesday morning, 17th August, surrounded by her siblings who are absolutely enamoured with her. A little magic moon for our family,” Palmer wrote in 2021 after the birth.
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Supernatural‘s Felicia Day was able to keep her pregnancy a secret (only revealing the news at the very end of the first trimester), but once Calliope Maeve was born, she was ready to tell the world. “She’s coming in about three weeks so I guess I should announce this and stuff,” she tweeted with a baby bump pic in 2017.
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Comedian Russell Brand is known for being somewhat outlandish, but he and wife Laura Gallacher chose sweet, traditional names for their daughters: Mabel, who was born in 2016, and Peggy, born in 2018.
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Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis named their daughter Wyatt Isabelle, who was born in 2014. The couple came up with the name during a Lakers game, Kutcher once told Conan O’Brien. “….and I just started listing off anything and everything that I saw: ‘Sign! Truck! Wall! Door!’” he said. “She [was] like, ‘Shut up!’ Then I was like, ‘I’ve got a really dumb idea. What about Wyatt?’ She goes, ‘That’s it.’”
The actors named their second baby Dimitri Portwood, who was born in 2016. Dimitri is a Russian baby boy name from the Greek Demetrius (the god of farming and fertility) and an obvious nod to Kunis’ roots — she was born in Ukraine.
Their son’s middle name, Portwood, appears to honor Kutcher’s stepfather, Mark Portwood.
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Liv Tyler and her ex-fiancé, Dave Gardner share two children: Lula, who was born in 2016, and Sailor, who was born in 2015. Tyler also shares son Milo, age 17, with her former partner Royston Langdon.
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In 2013, journalist Lisa Ling and her husband Dr. Paul Song welcomed a baby girl they named Jett. Three years later, Jett inherited a big sister named Ray.
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Former couple Olivia Wilde and Jason Sudeikis named their first child Otis (the little boy was born in 2014) and their daughtrer Daisy Josephine, born in 2016. Wilde has the names of both her children tattooed on her forearms. “Momma’s love,” tattoo artist Dr. Woo captioned an Instagram photo that showed off his work.
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Chrissy Teigen and John Legend welcomed their daughter, Luna Simone Stephens, into the world in 2016. Luna is the name of the Roman goddess of the moon. Little Luna was followed by baby Miles in 2018.
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Kelly Clarkson and her soon-to-be ex-husband Brandon Blackstock’s daughter is named River Rose and their son is Remington Alexander.
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Former The Real co-host Tamera Mowry chose two awesome names for her children: She named her son Aden, a Hebrew name meaning “handsome” and her daughter Ariah, a Hebrew name meaning “lion of God.”
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Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds named their daughter James to honor Reynolds’ father, who died in 2015, one year after the birth of his grandchild. “In the spectrum of weird celebrity baby names, I feel like we’re not really breaking any new ground here,” Reynolds told Good Morning Britain. “I mean, I didn’t call her Summer Squash Meadowlark, or something.”
Their daughter Inez was born in 2016, and their daughter Betty in 2019.
“My dad’s name was Ernest Brown Jr. but he was known as Ernie Lively,” Lively said in a press release, per Us Weekly. “He gave up his last name when he married my mom, [Elaine Lively], and any success he, or I, have experienced has been in a name that isn’t his. So when I was working hard to build this company, I wanted any success to be in a name that was meaningful to him. Betty was his mom and his sister’s name. Also, Ernie would not be the best name for a mixer.”
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Chris Martin and Gwyneth Paltrow said their children’s names, Apple and Moses, were inspired by the Bible. “When we were first pregnant, her daddy said, ‘If it’s a girl I think her name should be Apple,'” Paltrow told Oprah Winfrey in 2004. “It sounded so sweet, and it conjured such a lovely picture for me, you know. Apples are so sweet and they’re wholesome, and it’s biblical.”
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Twins Harper and Gideon, the children of Neil Patrick Harris and husband David Burtka, were named after an old-fashioned internet search. According to Today, the couple wanted names that were easy to spell and were not stereotypical.
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Jessica Alba and Cash Warren put thought into their children’s names. Honor, who was born in 2008, has noble undertones while Haven, born in 2011, was chosen because the girl was delivered inside her amniotic sac. “Cash said, ‘She was born in her safe haven,’” Alba told People. “And so there we had it.”
Hayes, the couple’s son who was born in 2017, has a name with English origins, according to BabyNames, which means “live by the forest.”
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Tori Spelling and husband Dean McDermott were creative in their baby name choices: Liam (born in 2007), Stella (2008), Hattie (2011), Finn (2012), and Beau (2017).
Before Beau was born, Spelling admitted that choosing a name for their youngest child wouldn’t be easy. “The pressure is on,” she told E! News. “The names came to us [for] all four of them, so we’re hoping the name comes to this one, but we don’t know what it is yet.”
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Miranda Kerr and her ex-husband Orlando Bloom named their son, who was born in 2011, Flynn Christopher. Kerr once explained to the Daily Telegraph that she chose the name to honor her high school boyfriend Christopher, who was killed in a car accident as a teen. “…After he died, I wrote him a letter that said I hoped to name my first child after him in some way,” she said.
Meanwhile, Kerr shares sons Hart and Myles, with husband Evan Spiegel.
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Former Playboy model Kendra Wilkinson and Hank Baskett named their son Hank (born 2009) and their daughter Alijah (born in 2014). “I knew I wanted a unisex name [when I was] going through the names,” Wilkinson told People of her daughter’s name. “I ended up going to Sundance [and] I met a driver who was amazing and so kind. He was talking about his daughter who was named Alijah and I knew right then that would be my little girl’s name. Mary is for my grandmother — I’m carrying the name on.”
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Kristin Cavallari and Jay Cutler named their third child Saylor after meeting a furry friend. “We picked out this baby girl’s name when I was pregnant with our first,” she told the baby registry site Cricket’s Circle. “I met a woman and her dog, and I loved her dog’s name. Funny enough, it was the name she had picked out if she had a girl, but she had boys, so she used it for her dog instead. Here we are 3 1/2 years later, and we are going to use that name for our little girl!”
The couple also share sons Camden and Jaxon.
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Divorced couple Megan Fox and Brian Austin Green share three sons: Noah, (born in 2012), Bodhi (born in 2014), Journey (2016).
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Carson Daly and his wife Siri Pinter share four children: Jackson, Etta, Goldie, and London.
In 2020, Daly shared with Today the inspiration behind Goldie’s name: “We had a short list of names that we liked, but nothing was sticking its neck out,” he said. “And I thought about it, you know, this is our fourth kid. She seems like the pot of gold at the end of our family rainbow.”
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Former couple Rachel Bilson and Hayden Christensen chose Briar Rose as their daughter’s name because they are huge Disney fans and were inspired by the main character in Sleeping Beauty. Princess Aurora is also known as Briar Rose.
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Ben Haggerty, whose stage name is Macklemore, and his wife Tricia Davis named their first daughter Sloane Ava Simone Haggerty. Sloan is a Gaelic name meaning “warrior.” Their other two children are named Colette and Hugo.
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Daphne Oz and John Jovanovic gave their children the coolest names: Jovan, Philomena, Domenica, and Giovanna.
The Good Dish co-host and her husband nicknamed Philomena “PBJ” (her middle name is Bijou, which means “jewel” in French).
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Model Molly Sims revealed that husband Scott Stuber had several rules in place for naming their son Brooks, who was born in 2012: “[Scott] has four criteria: can a sportscaster announce it properly, how can it be shortened and still look cool, does it mean anything, and is he going to be made fun of in fifth grade,” she told Parade.
The couple nicknamed Scarlett, who was born in 2015, “Spicy” and Grey, born in 2017, was the top name choice of his big brother.
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The L Word star Donald Faison has six kids, one of whom is named Wilder. “…It was meant to be,” he told Us Weekly. “And it is kind of crazy because Wilder means ‘wild animal’ and her middle name is Frances, and that means ‘free.’ And so accidentally, we named our kid ‘wild and free.’”
Faison’s other kids are named Rocco, Kobe, Dade, Kaya, and Sean.
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Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel chose a biblical name meaning “Man of the woods” for their first son Silas, who was born in 2015. The boy’s middle name, Randall, honors Timberlake’s father and it’s also the singer’s middle name.
The couple’s younger son Phineas was born in 2020. His name means “oracle” in Hebrew.
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Former New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees has four children with his wife, Brittany. It’s a tough competition, but our favorite Brees baby name was given to his youngest, Rylen Judith who is a little sibling to Baylen, Bowen and Callen.
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Marlowe Mae is the daughter of actor Eva Amurri and Kyle Martino and the granddaughter of actress Susan Sarandon. When asked by People how she felt about the girl’s name, Sarandon responded, ”It’s not a vegetable, a city or a place. It’s a real name, but it’s unusual. I really like it.”
Major was born in 2016 and Mateo was born in 2020, amid his parents’ divorce.
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Late-night talk show host Jimmy Fallon and his wife, Nancy Juvonen, welcomed their two daughters into the world just 16 months apart and were given the most darling names: Winnie Rose joined their family in 2013, and Frances Cole came the following year.
According to Fallon, Winnie was named after Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire where he proposed to Nancy. “We were talking about different names. You overthink names — you don’t want a name that’s been done, but then you don’t want something so weird people are like, ‘What?!’ Winnipesaukee’s a little long,” he told TODAY. “Also she’s a ‘win’ for us.”
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Kourtney Kardashian always loved the name Reign and had considered it for her firstborn son Mason, who was born in 2009.
During her third pregnancy, Kourtney Kardashian was sure she was carrying a girl and planned to name her Rain, which she had almost given her daughter Penelope, who was born in 2012. “Once I found out I was having a boy, we just changed the spelling again,” Kardashian told People. Reign was born in 2014.
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Kevin Hart has four children: Heaven and Hendrix, who she shares with his ex-wife Torrei Hart, and Kenzo and Kaori, who he shares with wife Eniko Hart. Beautiful!
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In 2020, Iggy Azalea (whose real name is Amethyst Amelia Kelly) welcomed her son Onyx with her former partner Playboi Carti.
Amethyst and Onyx sound like a perfect pairing!
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Soleil Moon Frye admitted that she and husband Jason Goldberg were under pressure to pick cool baby names, due to her own. “I love having a unique name,” she told People. “Also, because it meant so much. I was born in the month of the sun, and there was a song my mom loved and it was, ‘I’ve got the sun in the morning and the moon at night,’ and my middle name is Moon.”
The actress spoke to the outlet while pregnant with Story and said, “We’re trying to come up with a name, but there’s so many crazy, unique names in our household that I gotta really come up with something good, so I’m working on it.”
We’d say they did good!
(Dee Cercone/Everett Collection)Celebrity baby names aren’t just fodder for inspiration: Whether they realize it or not, we are forever pitting celebs against each other in an imaginary competition of who can come up with the most unusual baby name. The contenders are many and impressive. Though many famous parents who have welcomed babies in the last couple […]