Best New Celebrity Dad Baby Names
By Linda Rosenkrantz
A hearty Happy Father’s Day to the celebs who welcomed new babies during the first half of 2015, in particular the dads who put a lot of thought and care into their baby name choices and came out with winners. Here are the twelve celebrity baby names and namers we’d particularly like to single out.
Somehow this nickname name seems like the perfect choice for Irish comic actor O’Dowd—cool, wry, offbeat and quirky. Art has rarely been used on its own, but has worked fine as a nickname for Garfunkel, Carney, Pepper and Tatum. In addition to its creative word meaning, it relates to a couple of legendary High Kings of Ireland–a plus for Mr. O’Dowd.
Charlotte Elizabeth Diana—Prince William
Talk about name pressure! The popular Duke and Duchess of Cambridge had thousands betting on what their choice would be within the constraints imposed on them. They pulled it off with three classics, honoring the baby’s great-grandma and cherished late grandmother.
After joking with a talk show host that he was naming his and Blake Lively’s baby Excalibur Anaconda or Butternut Summersquash, the couple finally announced a pick almost as surprising: a girl named James. But they are not the first to have gender-bent this boy classic—Brendan Fehr did it earlier, and several other celebs have used it as their daughters’ middle.
Yes, there will be a lot of real McCoy jokes about this recent choice by Hart of Dixie star Scott Porter, who was inspired in part by Texas quarterback Colt McCoy. Lots of parents are reevaluating the whole genre of Mc/Mac names for boys, from McKinley to MacGregor.
There’s a sweet sentiment behind Perez Hilton’s choice Mia Alma, via its meaning, “my soul.” Mia is now the sixth most popular girl’s name in the country, with well over 13,000 baby girls given that name in 2014, so this little Mia will have plenty of name sharers.
Montgomery Moses Brian—Sacha Baron Cohen
Sacha Baron Cohen and wife Isla Fischer have come up with three unexpected and diverse choices for their kids. First came the trend-setting Olive in 2007, followed three years later by Elula, a Hebrew name, and now the mighty Anglo-Scottish surname name Montgomery for their first son. The midcentury middle Brian is the name of Isla‘s dad.
The world was moved by the touching story of Vin Diesel naming his baby daughter Pauline in tribute to his close friend and Fast and Furious co-star Paul Walker, who died tragically in a car crash. Pauline has been off the baby name radar since the 90s; it was a Top 50 name for the first three decades of the 20th century and might be due for a comeback.
Interior designer/TV personality Berkus and husband Jeremiah Brent chose the up-and-coming vivid floral name Poppy for their daughter. Picked by a number of other celebs including Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer, Anthony Edwards, Jamie Oliver and Jessica Capshaw, Poppy is in full bloom at Number 12 in England, 64 on Nameberry—and just ready to burst onto the US Top 1000.
Sam Worthington and Lara Bingle went even more dynamic with their choice of word name Rocket. It was first used by director Robert Rodriguez for his son in 1995, then by rapper Pharrell in 2008 and last year by another musical pair—but for their daughter. It seems that the sci-fi-ish Zot was the nickname of Bingle’s late father.
Silas Randall—Justin Timberlake
Silas, the handsome choice of Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel, was the middle name of daddy’s maternal grandfather, while Randall is Justin’s own middle name. New Testament Silas is getting to be a red hot oldie, rapidly shedding a onetime hayseed image to rise to Number 137 on the charts.
The iconic name of the storied Vatican chapel, home of Michelagelo’s frescoes, previously provided inspiration to Sylvester Stallone and now to comedy star Kevin James for his daughter; Kevin James has another little girl with a name equally evocative of Italy: Sienna–Marie.
Violet Moon & Knox Blue—Steve Howey
Steve Howie, the actor who plays Kev on Shameless and was featured on Reba, picked what we consider a perfect pair of names for his girl-boy twins. We especially like his combination of clearly defined, traditional first names with more imaginative middles.