Celebrity baby names can reflect or even launch naming trends in the general population.  Here, some of the hottest celebrity baby names and trends we see heating up right now:

Babies Named After Heavenly Bodies, Objects, And/Or Beings –

SERAPHINA – Ben and Jen

MARS – Erykah Badu

LUNA – Constance Marie

Stella LUNA – Ellen Pompeo

Scarlet STAR – Melanie Chisholm & Eddie Murphy

CIEL (French for sky) – Niki Taylor

Aven ANGELICA – Matthew Settle

Journey JETT – Jenna Jameson

JETT Hamilton – Jill Scott

Petal Blossom RAINBOW – Jamie Oliver

Babies with Animal Names

BIRDIE West – Maura West

SPARROW James Midnight – Nicole Richie and Joel Madden

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We talk a lot about the influence of celebrity baby names on the general population of baby namers, but just how potent is that influence in actuality?  I thought it might be useful to  take a closer look at some celebrity choices and see if there was some way to quantify their impact.

Of course there are, inevitably, other factors involved in whether celebrity baby names become popular.  For instance, how high-profile is this celeb and how much has her child been seen in the media?  What are other influences surrounding  the name?  A popular character in a movie or TV show?  Is this a name that would have risen anyway, just as part of the zeitgeist or is it one that was never—or hardly ever—even heard before?  Is  it a vintage name that had been stored in the attic until it was brought out and sprinkled with some stardust?

Here are a few specific examples, giving the child’s and his or her celebrity parent’s name, the year of birth, and where the name ranked before, during and after its arrival.

AVA is an interesting case.  Previously seen as an outdated, elderlyish name, it first showed signs of a revival when used by Aidan Quinn in 1989, but he didn’t seem to have the voltage to elevate the name above the 800’s on the Social Security list.  Next came Heather Locklear, a major TV star at the time of her Ava’s birth in 1997: the name subsequently rose from #737 in 1995 to 259 in 1999.  But it was following the more highly publicized arrival of Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Phillippe’s Ava-named daughter in 1999 that the name shot up to #133 two years later—and then all the way to #5 (and probably rising) last year.

HAZEL was another name that seemed to have little potential for a comeback when chosen by Julia Roberts for one of her twins in 2004.  It wasn’t even on the list in 1997, was at 681 when little Hazel Moder was born, but had risen to 359 three years later.

IRELAND is a clear-cut example of a name created by the celebrity culture, as it was unheard of when the daughter of Kim Basinger and Alec Baldwin was born in 1995—a time when place names were heating up.  By last year, there were more baby girls named Ireland than there were named Tess, Tia or Tanya.

JADEN is another proof of the Starbaby Effect.  The son of Jada Pinkett and Will Smith was given this spin on the biblical Jadon in 1998, when it ranked #328; five years later it had zoomed to #82.  Jaden’s sister Willow’s name is also on the rise.

JAYDEN.  This spelling was already quite trendy when Britney Spears and Kevin Federline picked it for their son in 2006, but the maelstrom of  publicity swirling around Britney and her boys surely contributed to this version of the name reaching its current standing of  #11. (more…)

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:

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Saturday Night Live has been around for 34 years, and over its long run it has featured many of the funniest, most creative, offbeat comic talents in America–some of whom have gone on to become so iconic that we’ve almost forgotten they were ever regulars on the show.  As in Billy Crystal, Robert Downey Jr, Bill Murray, Dennis Miller, Chris Rock, Ben Stiller, Eddie Murphy, Adam Sandler, Martin Short and Senator Al “I’m good enough, I’m smart enough” Franken.

The question is: did they apply their quirky creativity when it came to naming their babies?  The answer is: not so much.  For example, Billy Crystal named one of his daughters Jennifer, Julia Louis-Dreyfuss and Brad Hall have a Henry and a Charles, Dana Carvey a Thomas, Al Franken a Joe,  and Jim Belushi a Robert.

But there are some who did–to lesser and greater degrees–think outside the box, most recently Maya Rudolph with her choice of Lucille. Here are some others:

ALEXANDRA  –  Joe Piscopo

ALICE ZENOBIA  –  Tina Fey

AUBREY  –  Victoria Jackson

BELLA ZAHRA  –  Eddie Murphy

BELLE KINGSTON  –  Dan Ackroyd

BIRGEN  –  Phil Hartman

BRIA  –Eddie Murphy

BRIDEY  –  Chris Elliot

CARA MIA  –  Damon Wayans

ELLA OLIVIA  –  Ben Stiller

FRANCES  –  Ana Gasteyer

GITRID  –  Tracy Morgan

HARPER  –  David Spade

JAMISON –  Jim Belushi

KYLA  –  Damon Wayans

LILY ASTER  –  Gilbert Gottfried

LOLA SIMONE  –  Chris Rock

LUCILLE  –  Maya Rudolph (more…)

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?