Surfer Names, Sibsets and Starbabies in the News
As I’m writing this, there’s been no news of the royal baby’s name yet. But don’t worry, there’s plenty of other name news this week, including huge families, surfing- and clothing-inspired names, and well-matched celebrity siblings.
She’s a boy again
Naming 14 boys sounds like an elaborate game from the Nameberry forums, but it’s reality for Jay and Kateri Schwandt. They already had 13 sons called (deep breath) Tyler, Zach, Drew, Brandon, Tommy, Vinny, Calvin, Gabe, Wesley, Charlie, Luke, Tucker, and Francisco, and they’ve just welcomed their fourteenth son, Finley Sheboygan.
That middle name comes from a story the couple heard. A father with a lot of boys was convinced that his last child would be a girl. When it wasn’t, he named his son Sheboygan: “she’s a boy again”. True? False? Who knows, but it’s a fun middle name to give to what they think will be their last kid.
Reading through the brothers’ names, you can see two decades of trends in action, but they still feel like they fit together as a team. Tyler was a staple of the 1990s; Tucker is a fresher version for the 21st century. How about you: could you easily name 14 boys? Or would you be all out of ideas by son number 3?
Surfer baby names: Theia and Barrel
Big wave surfer Garrett McNamara is also a master of big names. He and his wife have just welcomed their daughter Theia Love Nazare Celeste Rose. We know the meaning behind some of those names. Nazaré is a town in Portugal where the family have a second home – Garrett also broke a world record there. Celeste is the name (and proprietor) of his favorite restaurant there, and Rose is a family name. Their older son, excitingly, is called Barrel – that’s the hollow part of a wave.
Another pro surfer, Bethany Hamilton, recently welcomed her son Wesley Phillip. And looking further back in time, the Irish surfer Easkey Britton was herself named after a famous wave off the coast of Ireland.
Whether you love hitting the waves or are just looking for a name that conjures up the ocean, this post on cool surfers’ names is full of ideas.
Fashion, football and hidden meanings
A Scottish announcement for Biba Bluebell caught my eye this week. Firstly, that’s a lot of alliteration in four syllables. Secondly, there’s a bit more to it than meets the eye. Biba’s news presenter mother got the name from a clothing brand, which is itself named after the founder’s sister (short for the Polish name Biruta). Biba shares her middle name, Bluebell, with her big sister Remi. It’s inspired not directly by the flower, but by dad’s old junior soccer team.
It just goes to show, even a name that seems straightforward can have an unexpected story behind it.
Well-matched starbaby siblings
Of course, there are ways to coordinate your children’s names without giving them the same middle name.
What about rhyming middle names? Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has a daughter called Jasmine Lia…and now he has another one, Tiana Gia. (If you noticed that both girls also have Disney Princess names, you’re not the only one.) This makes The Rock the latest in a long line of celebrities to use Gia. Another recent one is Gia Leblane (known as Gigi), daughter of the Australian model Gary Clark Jr. Her first name honors her mother’s father, Giuseppe.
Model Coco Rocha has also gone down the route of similar names with her newborn son, Iver Eames. His big sister is Ioni James. Rocha and her husband have a knack for choosing rare names with stylish sounds – Iver was only given to 47 boys in 2016. I can’t help but wonder: if they had a third child, whether they’d continue the theme of I___ _ames. Indy Hames? Izak Tames?
Hudson and Haven are another complementary pair: they’re both modern, slightly unisex names on the upswing. They’re the new twins of Dancing with the Stars couple Robert Herjavec and Kym Johnson.
Naming wisdom from Twitter
These tweets about baby names might make you laugh (or cry, if the struggle is all too real). My favorites are the name suggestions from older siblings. You know, helpful suggestions like Optimus Prime, Woody Woodpecker, and Fence.