I walked into a Tribeca nail salon last weekend, killing time before a lunch date, and there getting a manicure was Gwyneth Paltrow.  And the adorable little girl quietly rearranging the nail polish colors?  None other than the infamous Apple.

Call me starstruck, but watching the tall (yes, very tall), gorgeous Gwyneth – who was wearing what seems to be the New York Yummy Mummy uniform du jour of black riding pants, black riding boots, and a baggy tee shirt — talk to her daughter, I thought: Apple is a really cute name.  A little quirky, maybe, but not deserving of all the ridicule that’s been heaped on it.  Cute.

So that got me thinking (I had a lot of time to think, while pretending not to be staring at Gwynnie) about other cute celebrity baby names.  Not bizarre celebrity baby names, not trendy celebrity baby names.  Just the cutest choices of recent years.

Here, my nominees:

ADELE GEORGIANA (Molly Ringwald)

APPLE BLYTHE ALISON (Gwyneth Paltrow & Chris Martin)

BIRDIE LEIGH (Busy Phillips)

BRONWYN GOLDEN (Angela Bassett & Courtney B. Vance)

CALLUM LYON (Kyle MacLachlan)

CHARLIE TAMARA TULIP (Rebecca Romijn & Jerry O’Connell)

CLEMENTINE JANE (Ethan Hawke)

COCO TRINITY (Diane Farr)

DEXTER LLOYD (Charlotte Church)

DOLLY REBECCA ROSE (Rebecca Romijn & Jerry O’Connell)

DOMINO CARMEN (India Hicks)

DONOVAN RORY MacDONALD (Noel Gallagher)

EMME MARIBEL (Jennifer Lopez & Marc Anthony)

EVER GABO (Milla Jovovich & Paul Anderson)

EVERLY BEAR (Anthony Kledes)

FRANCES PEN (Amanda Peet)

HARLOW WINTER KATE (Nicole Richie & Joel Madden)

HENRY STORY (Minnie Driver)

KENZO LEE (Kimora Lee Simmons & Djimon Hounsou)

MABEL PAINTER (Chad Lowe)

NAHLA ARIELA (Halle Berry)

OTIS TOBIAS (Tobey Maguire & Jennifer Meyer)

PETAL BLOSSOM RAINBOW (Jamie Oliver)

SPARROW JAMES MIDNIGHT (Nicole Richie & Joel Madden)

SUNDAY ROSE (Nicole Kidman & Keith Urban)

SUNNY MADELINE (Adam Sandler)

SURI (Katie Holmes & Tom Cruise)

TALLULAH RUTH (Damon Dash)

VIGGO MORIAH (Taylor Hanson)

WILLIAM HUCKLEBERRY (Kimberly Williams & Brad Paisley)

Agree?  Disagree?  What would you add?

Max, the name of both the child hero and the young actor who plays him in Where The Wild Things Are, is one of the hottest boys’ names these days.

Max can stand on its own or may be a short form of the ancient Roman name Maximus, which means “greatest,” or of Maximilian or Maxwell.  It’s one of the down-to-earth cigar-chomping grandpa names last popular a hundred years ago and enjoying a huge revival now.  Like brothers Sam and Jake, Max is unpretentious and friendly but also sounds cool.

Celebrities led the way in launching the revival of the name, starting in the late 70s and early 80s.  Stars who are the parents of now-grown kids named Max include Dustin Hoffman, Henry Winkler, Steven Spielberg, and Nora Ephron & Carl Bernstein.

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We looked at trailblazing women in Part One of this blog yesterday—bold and courageous achievers who would prove worthy namesakes for a daughter.  Now we turn to those with major accomplishments in the arts—a varied mix of writers, artists, and musicians of the far and fairly recent  past—many of whom seem to have appropriately creative names—whether they were born with them or not.

Again, remember that the name’s the thing here—so sorry, Mary Cassatt and Elizabeth Barrett Browning–not this time.

WRITERS

AGATHA Christie

ANAIS Nin

APHRA Behn (also seen on the trailblazer list)

AYN Rand

CARSON (born Lula) McCullers

CHARLOTTE Bronte

COLETTE (born Sidonie-Gabrielle Collette)

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Just when it seemed that the stormy seas of extreme celebrity baby names were calming down (you can see our comments on this at Celebrity Babies Blog), a new crop has come along  introducing a whole bunch of innovative choices, ranging from the ridiculous to the semi-sublime:

BARDOT (first name of David Boreanaz’s daughter) Following in the footsteps of Harlow and other  Hollywood sirens and sex kittens of the past(Dad Boreanaz admitted being inspired by a Brigitte Bardot poster), Bardot could easily fit in with the growing group of o-ending girls’ names: Juno, Lilo, Willow, etc.

BETSI (middle name of Ioan Gruffudd & Alice Evans’ daughter Ella).  Much to my surprise, I find this new take on an old name—I’m not usually a big fan of changing y’s to i’s— appealingly fresh, cute and perky.
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When Henry was chosen as the #1 favorite boy’s name on the collective 5-star lists of the nameberry community, I was somewhat surprised and yet somewhat not.  Because in many ways Henry is the perfect boy’s name—as classic and historic as James and John and William –yet with a quirkier edge that makes it seem modern, and even hip.

Henry has a lot going for it.  Let us count the ways:

HENRY IS POPULAR, WELL-LIKED, BUT NOT EPIDEMICALLY TRENDY.

At #78 on the Social Security list last year, Henry was given to fewer than 4,000 boys across the country.  It was much more commonly heard in the past, having been #10 in 1900, 12 in the 1910s, 18 in the twenties, 25 in the thirties, then dipping to a low of 146 in 1994, after which it started its edge back up.

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