The celebrity baby-naming year got off to an exciting start with the birth of Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck’s second daughter, whose name remained a mystery for more than a week.
When it was finally announced, it was so surprising and lovely that it made the long wait worthwhile: SERAPHINA ROSE ELIZABETH, a shoo-in for one of the Best Celebrity Baby Names of the year.
Our other nominees for Best Celebrity Baby Girl Name:
MABEL PAINTER – Chad Lowe’s little girl’s name is a charming, quirky vintage choice, with an original artistic middle name from the hot occupational genre.
HELENA GRACE – The classic Helena is a name just emerging from the attic, chosen by Gossip Girl’s Kelly Rutherford. Its originality makes up for the lovely yet somewhat standard-issue Grace in the middle place.
PALOMA LOUISE – Ana Ortiz chose this exotic-yet-familiar name for her daughter, with the original Louise, tres chic in Paris, in the middle.
PHOEBE MARGARET – Phoebe is a mythological and biblical name that’s newly finding favor, chosen for her newborn daughter by Julianne Nicholson.
For boys, our nominees for Best Name are:
WALKER NATHANIEL – Idina Menzel and Taye Diggs chose this occupational surname name with the Biblical Nathaniel in the middle.
JASPER WARREN – The gently old-fashioned Jasper is the choice of actress Kimberly Williams-Paisley and country singer Brad Paisley; Warren in the middle is another long-ignored choice due for revival.
OTIS TOBIAS – The bluesy Otis is an offbeat choice of Tobey Maguire and Jennifer Meyer, whose older child has the equally distinctive name of Ruby Sweetheart.
BECKETT EDWARD – Nicole Sullivan chose the surname-first Beckett, a new celebrity favorite, for her son, with Twilight hottie Edward in middle place.
BLAISE RAY – Blaise is the fiery old saint’s name revived by Amanda Beard for her son, with jazz favorite Ray in the middle.
And as for the worst?
The nominees are, for girls:
BANDIT LEE – Gerard Way‘s new daughter has a name fit for a criminal, though boy names like Ryker and Gunner are on the rise.
ANNISTON KAE – Chyler Leigh gave her daughter colleague Jennifer’s last name, though Jolie is higher on the popularity list.
MARS MERKABA – Erykah Badutweeted her labor and initially claimed she named her baby Twitty Milk. The real name, Mars Merkaba, sounded almost great after that. Almost.
For boys, we’re sorry to say it was much harder to whittle the worst list down to just three. But our final nominees are:
KAYDNZ KODA – TPain’s son’s name takes yooneek spellings to new lowz.
IKHYD EDGAR ARULAR – M.I.A. rocked her son’s name, but won’t the kids call him Ikky?
SPARROW JAMES MIDNIGHT – Love or hate Nicole Richie and Joel Madden’s newborn son’s name? Some see it as charming and orginal, others as the name of a drab little bird.
Now, for the voting. Please make one choice in each category. You can even add your own picks, if we’ve missed your favorite (or most hated) names. We’ll announce the winners, and losers, next week.
December 8th, 2009 at 2:29 am
I loved this blog!!!
My votes for the best name:
Phoebe Margaret (I nearly voted for Helena Grace, but like you said, Grace is a pretty common middle. I love Seraphina Rose Elizabeth, too.)
Jasper Warren (I don’t really like Warren, but I love Jasper!)
Worst name:
I voted for Mars. I was surprised to see that you didn’t like Bandit, because I think it’s total C.E.O. material (I kid, I kid….).
As for Anniston, I’ve been trying very hard, but as of press time, I just can’t see its appeal as a first name.
Kaydnz: This takes yooneek names to a whole new level. As I wrote on Nameberry long ago about this name:
Well, at least he’ll have an interesting story as to how he got his name:
“Well, my dad fell asleep at the computer one day, and after his cheek hit the keyboard, he looked up at the screen and knew the almighty typo before his eyes was destined to be my name. On the bright side, I could have been #$^^*@.”
Thanks for the fun blog!