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Celebrity Baby Names: If Roll Call Wasn’t Hard Enough
CBS) ^ | May 1, 2012 4:14 PM

Posted on 05/02/2012 5:53:41 PM PDT by BenLurkin

Deciding what to name your newborn baby is no petty task. For years parents everywhere have made sure their child’s name holds a special meaning; whether it’s after a grandparent, important figure, or something of symbolic meaning, naming a child is usually a drawn out process.

But Tuesday’s birth of Jessica Simpson’s daughter, Maxwell Drew Johnson, reminds us of all the celebrities who have come up with some pretty interesting names.

Unorthodox at times, the rich and famous do have a formula for deeming what name fits their child best. Here are a few assumptions and one true story.

• After the first thing they eat after giving birth: Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin’s daughter, Apple, and Courteney Cox’s daughter, Coco.

• Following a recent vacation to the coast: Forest Whitaker’s daughter, Ocean.

• Because they never went to grammar school: David Duchovny and Tea Leoni’s son, Kyd.

• After their favorite comic book character: Nicolas Cage’s son, Kal-El.

But let’s face it, Hollywood’s finest aren’t the only one’s messing with the baby name continuum; we are all guilty. We name our babies after the four seasons, we flip traditional gender based names, and just like celebrities and their crazy concoctions, we also make up names or add variations to the already existing ones. What was so wrong with Josiah that is has to be Jasiah?

Perhaps celebrities should not be condemned for their obscure ideas, but rather commended for their creative ones. Between the 1960’s and 1990’s, Michael was the most popular boy name, and the second most at the start of the new millennium. Likewise, Jessica had a 20-year reign.

But things have changed; maybe the influence of superstar creativeness has rubbed off on us regular people. Jayden and Aiden were nowhere to be found amongst the most popular names in the last 100 years; in 2010 both were in the top 10. The same is true for Mia and Chloe.

If a name is just a word or set of words which a person is known by, then there is no right or wrong one. There are just unique and different ones like Blue Ivy Carter, Pilot Inspektor, or Blanket. So go ahead and feel free to call your precious newborn however you please….just remember to be careful because their name could be the one butchered during roll call, that is, until they legally change it….18 years later.


TOPICS: Weird Stuff
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To: Ax

My best friend’s name was Gladys after her grandmother. When we were in high school all the guys called her Happy Bottom (Glad Ass). As soon as she turned 18 she changed it to Katy.


21 posted on 05/02/2012 8:07:08 PM PDT by Grams A (The Sun will rise in the East in the morning and God is still on his throne.)
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To: ari-freedom

Missed it by that much!


22 posted on 05/02/2012 8:20:27 PM PDT by TBP (Obama lies, Granny dies.)
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To: ari-freedom

Missed it by that much!


23 posted on 05/02/2012 8:20:43 PM PDT by TBP (Obama lies, Granny dies.)
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To: BenLurkin

Or after a song, like Chelsea Clinton (Chelsea Morning) and Mariah Carey (They Call the Wind Mariah.)


24 posted on 05/02/2012 8:22:03 PM PDT by TBP (Obama lies, Granny dies.)
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To: BenLurkin

Or after a song, like Chelsea Clinton (Chelsea morning) and Mariah Carey (They Call the Wind Mariah.)


25 posted on 05/02/2012 8:22:03 PM PDT by TBP (Obama lies, Granny dies.)
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To: BenLurkin

Naming a girl Maxwell is just plain stupid. IT’S A BOY’S NAME!!!


26 posted on 05/02/2012 8:28:44 PM PDT by POWERSBOOTHEFAN (I love you so much,Pumpkin. You're the best cat in the world.)
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To: OldPossum

I am a “Jr”, too and do not mind that I was named after my dad. I just wish he had a less unusual first name. I have a very common last name, but with the first name added, I can only find about 12 people with this name when I do an internet search.

When my wife & I were first introduced, her comment was “I hope you have enough sense to let that name die with you!”

So far, we’ve not named any of our 4 kids “III”.

;-)


27 posted on 05/02/2012 8:49:03 PM PDT by BwanaNdege (Man has often lost his way, but modern man has lost his address - Gilbert K. Chesterton)
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To: Harmless Teddy Bear

There was a girl in my daughter’s school named Shiphrah. I wonder if she had a sister named Puah.

(The midwives who saved the Hebrew baby boys from the Egyptians - Biblical heroines - but not easy names to carry today. I think Shiphrah’s parents must have been very pro-life.)


28 posted on 05/02/2012 9:06:43 PM PDT by heartwood
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To: BenLurkin
Maxwell? That's a dude's name. Why not Maxine if you wanted to name someone Max?

I'm lucky I'm from a family of Micks with a history of naming us after family members. I'm luckier that my Great Grandfather had a normal name.

29 posted on 05/02/2012 9:27:17 PM PDT by Darren McCarty (The Republican Party is bigger than the presidency.)
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To: KittenClaws
The fact that Dad once had a GF named "Kitten" is kind of sweet.

≤{B^)

30 posted on 05/02/2012 10:37:34 PM PDT by Erasmus (BHO: New supreme leader of the homey rollin' empire.)
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To: TBP

I’m so bored with Jayden, Kaleigh, and Haley. Can’t parents come up with a name that isn’t “trendy”? Maxwell may be unique, but I agree it’s a man’s name.


31 posted on 05/02/2012 10:52:35 PM PDT by boop (I hate hippies and dopeheads. Just hate them. ...Ernest Borgnine)
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To: BwanaNdege

Well, I am just thankful that my mother resisted my father’s request that I be named after him. It saved me the legal expense of giving myself my own distinct name when I came of legal age to do so.

I suspect that Jr.s go through life always cognizant of their relationship to daddy. And sometimes this can be a bad, bad thing (not withstanding credit problems with two having the same name—never mind the “Jr.” part, stores have a way of leaving that off). I have particular reference to a young baseball player I saw playing for a minor league team back in the 1970s. His name was Micky Mantle Jr. (yep, that Micky Mantle who bestowed his famous name on his progeny).

Of course, he was a failure (those genes only come across each other once in a while). But hey, he was Micky Mantle Jr. and great things were expected!! Well, they may have been expected but the kid could not deliver...naturally.

I think naming someone Jr. is a terrible idea and in line with male pompousness. Have you ever seen a woman with the identical name of her mother? I doubt it. Women have better sense than to do things like that.


32 posted on 05/03/2012 3:49:19 AM PDT by OldPossum
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To: BenLurkin

One of my favorite actors named his son after the character he played in the movie where he and his wife fell in love, and his daughter after the actor who was responsible for getting him his bog break in Hollywood. The kids’ names?

Steven Humphrey Bogart
Leslie Howard Bogart

Ever notice that twins seem to have names that are almost sound the same? My wife is a twin, her and her sister’s names are Janet and Janice. Two other sets from back in school were Sandra and Susan, and Terri and Cherry.


33 posted on 05/03/2012 4:35:34 AM PDT by fredhead (It's my Herbie year...check out the number on the side of the famous VW.)
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To: BenLurkin
Don't forget the non-celebrity baby name atrocities like Laquisha or Laquinton. And who can forget Trayvon?????
34 posted on 05/03/2012 4:43:27 AM PDT by liberalh8ter (If Barack has a memory like a steel trap, why can't he remember what the Constitution says?)
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To: BenLurkin

I knew a Merry Christmas when I was in the military. He was a guy...didn’t use his first name.


35 posted on 05/03/2012 5:06:11 AM PDT by hattend (Firearms and ammunition...the only growing industries under the Obama regime.)
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To: tbw2

Olivia Newton John named her daughter after the perfume she had when attracting her first husband. Chloe.


36 posted on 05/03/2012 5:15:11 AM PDT by xp38
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To: OldPossum
“Have you ever seen a woman with the identical name of her mother? I doubt it. Women have better sense than to do things like that.”

My guess is that the practice was started to emulate royalty, i.e “King Edward IV”, etc. There appear to be far more “J. Winslow Throckmorton III’s”, usually from affluent lawyer families, around than there are “Billy Bob Stumpkicker IV’s”. Same goes for the First Initial Only monicker. Just a touch of familial pretentiousness.

My problem growing up was we moved a lot from the North to the South. I was not only the New Kid, but I was either a “Redneck” or a “Yankee”, depending on which way we had just moved, with an easily mispronounced first name, to boot. Not as bad as "A Boy Named Sue", but it did teach me to adapt.

So, I always used only my middle name, at least until I went off to college and had to get “official”.

37 posted on 05/03/2012 6:11:06 AM PDT by BwanaNdege (Man has often lost his way, but modern man has lost his address - Gilbert K. Chesterton)
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To: libertarian27; POWERSBOOTHEFAN; ari-freedom; Darren McCarty

................................."MAXWELL!"
38 posted on 05/03/2012 8:18:23 AM PDT by BenLurkin (This is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion or satire; or both)
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To: Red_Devil 232
Not sure about the Marines - but anyone in the USAF who was a “III’rd” was called “the T*rd”.

One good reason for skipping a generation with a family name rather than repeating it three times in a row.

39 posted on 05/03/2012 8:36:49 AM PDT by allmendream (Tea Party did not send GOP to DC to negotiate the terms of our surrender to socialism)
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To: liberalh8ter
Don't forget about my new favorite Amish name...

La-a

Honest to goodness, there was a news story about a mother who was angry at her daughter's school and teachers because they couldn't pronounce her name. They kept calling her (phoneticly) "Lahh" or "Laya" or "Lahh-ahh"

Of course, La-a = "La-dasha"

40 posted on 05/03/2012 8:37:54 AM PDT by Sideshow Bob
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