30 Times Famous Parents Chose Weird But Kind Of Wonderful Names For Their Children (2024)

Usain Bolt has three children. His firstborn was a girl and she was named Olympia Lightning. Olympia was his girlfriend Kasi’s choice and the middle name was a joint effort. A year later, Usain became a dad to twin boys and their names are Saint Leo and Thunder.

It is quite clear that Lightning and Thunder are play on words, but Saint Leo is actually the sprinter’s middle name.

Ed and his wife Cherry named their firstborn Lyra because the dad was fascinated how he had never met another person called Cherry. He wanted their daughter to be the only one as well, but now realises that Lyra might not have been the most successful choice as there is a book series, His Dark Materials, that is gaining popularity, with the main protagonist named Lyra.

The girl’s middle name also has a story. Ed and Cherry went to Antarctica in 2019 as it was the only continent that Ed hadn’t been to. The couple was mesmerized so they decided it was a fitting second name for their baby.

Christina Aguilera has two kids and in 2014 she and Matthew Rutler welcomed to the world the couple’s first and Christina’s second child Summer Rain. The concept of summer rain really has a nice feeling attached to it, but not everyone would think to turn it into a child’s name.

The mom explained what meaning the name has for her: “Summer is a time of spreading warmth and light, while rain washes away … replenishes and brings new life to allow growth and new beginnings. I wanted her name to be filled with inspiration, love and joy. And that’s exactly what she brings to all who encounter her. Her beauty and sunshine exude from within.”

In 2020, Katy Perry announced that her daughter with Orlando Bloom was born and they had named her Daisy Dove. When the mom came to Jimmy Kimmel live, the host asked her about the baby’s name.

Katy Perry explained, “Daisy, to me, means pure, like purity. And Dove means peace, and Bloom kind of feels like it means joy, so, pure, peace and joy.”

Fergie and her husband Josh Duhamel welcomed their first child in 2013 and named him Axl Jack. She explained the name choice on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. Apparently she was having a dream of listening to music at a festival where Jim Morrison, Bob Marley, and Axl Rose were performing.

While she was dancing to the music, the woman was woken up by her baby kicking for the first time. Because the couple had already settled on a middle name, which was a nod to her late uncle, the parents thought that Axl Jack had the best ring to it out of the musicians who appeared in the mom’s dream.

In 2021, actress and singer Ashley Tisdale became a mother and the idea to name her daughter Jupiter was inspired by the woman’s own mom. She explained, “I remembered my mom used to sing me a song when I was little. When she put my tights on. It's like 'Hands up! Reach for the stars, there goes Jupiter, there goes Mars.' And I thought, 'Jupiter is such a great name!'"

Jupiter was also perfect because it was a gender-neutral name and Ashley knew what she would call her child even before she was pregnant. But when the couple found out it was a girl, her husband added the middle name Iris.

Nicole Kidman has an interesting story to share when it comes to naming her third child Sunday Rose, which was her first daughter with Keith Urban. Nicole’s father suggested naming her Sunday in honor of Australian patron of the arts Sunday Reed and the parents liked the name, but not because it belonged to the patron, but they really liked the day of the week: “That's our favorite day because if you're happy and you've got your family and the things around you, then Sunday's a beautiful day.”

The second part of the name, Rose, was chosen to honor Keith’s grandmother, according to his brother who revealed the fact to an Australian radio station.

Kelly Clarkson gave birth to her and Brandon Blackstock's daughter in 2014. The parents went with a peculiar name: River Rose. The mom opened up how such a word combination became their baby’s name and it turns out the first part of it was quite random: "We were going back and forth on what to name her. And I like androgynous names. We live on a river, so it really wasn't that creative. We were outside on our balcony, and we both looked at each other and were like, 'What about River? That's kind of cool.'"

The second name, Rose, was inspired by Kelly’s mom: "It’s my mother's maiden name. And I love alliteration."

Onyx Solace was born in 2016 and is the couple’s only daughter and the oldest child. She has two brothers, Ever Imre and Winter Mercy, who also have quite unique names. The parents haven’t shared the reasons for their choice, but people are quite impressed with what they came up with.

Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise’s daughter Suri was born in 2006 and the announcement of her birth was followed by an explanation of the name. The parents named their daughter Suri as the word means ‘princess’ in Hebrew or ‘red rose’ in Persian.

It also has other not-so-sweet meanings in other languages, which lead to weird jokes on the internet, but 16 years later, the teen is still called the same.

Busy Philipps and Marc Silverstein started thinking about what name their child could possibly have when they found out they would be having a daughter. But it seems that when they finally saw the baby, the names they had chosen didn’t suit her.

Seeing as Marc is a writer, he quickly created a whole persona and image their daughter’s life could be like. The mom remembers, “A lot of times your name dictates the kind of personality you have and [Marc’s] like, ‘Everyone likes Cricket, Cricket is just the greatest, happiest kid on the block, the coolest camp counselor, she’s hot in college.' He just had this whole narrative for what that name was.”

Samira Wiley and her wife Lauren Morelli announced last year that they became moms and their baby girl’s name was revealed to be George Elizabeth. The new mom went on the Jimmy Kimmel show and revealed that some people are really confused by the name, as the name George is usually given to boys.

Samira said, “I just think it’s really cute. I tried to do some research, I found out in the 1800s it was a girl's name, but people don’t believe me when I say that.”

Uma Thurman’s second child she had with Arpad Busson in 2012 is usually referred to as Luna, but her birth name is Rosalind Arusha Arkadina Altalune Florence. That’s quite a mouthful as 5 names is not very usual to have.

Turns out, her first daughter Maya told her mom that she would probably not be having any more children, so she should put all the names she likes together to name her second daughter. And because they couldn’t agree on which name to use, they just call her Luna.

Gwyneth Paltrow’s daughter Apple reached adulthood as she celebrated her 18th birthday this year. She has her dad, member of Coldplay Chris Martin, to thank for her being named Apple. Not long after she was born, her mom revealed to Oprah that Chris suggested naming their child Apple if it happened to be a girl. Gwyneth said, “It sounded so sweet, and it conjured such a lovely picture for me. Apples are so sweet and they’re wholesome.”

The former One Direction member Liam Payne became a dad in 2017 to Bear Grey. It seems that Bear has been quite a popular name in the past decade, but it’s always interesting to know what were the reasons for picking it.

Liam reveals that when his son was just born, he made a certain growling noise which actually really made the parents concerned, but it turned out the baby was perfectly fine. Later, the sounds he made inspired the couple to settle on the name Bear.

Nicole Richie and Joel Madden welcomed their first child in 2008 and it was a girl, which they named Harlow Winter Kate. It wasn’t just a random name combination, but a thought-out one. The dad explained, “I really like Jean Harlow the actress, and [Nicole] likes Shalom Harlow the model. Harlow's cool because it feels like a classic name. Winter [is] so serene and quiet and that's how [our daughter] is.”

The couple’s second child was born in 2009 and for the boy, the parents went with Sparrow James Midnight. The parents didn’t get into detail of their son’s name choice, but when he was born, the dad tweeted, “A song for the little songbird” and linked the video "Sparrow" by Simon & Garfunkel.

Frankie Muniz, who was a popular child actor and is a race car driver, had his first child last year with actress Paige Price. They named the boy Mauz Mosley and people were quite divided on whether they liked it or not and were confused how it should be pronounced. The parents haven’t commented on why they chose this name combination, but are happy to share lots of photos of their kid on their Instagram pages.

Ed Sheeran announced about his second daughter being born back in May, and just recently, he revealed to The Sun that the parents will be naming her Jupiter.

The name has increased in popularity in recent years and even though it was originally a masculine name as it usually refers to the highest Roman god, because it has a similar ring to Juniper, it is given to girls more often nowadays.

The Sun’s source said, “Ed and Cherry loved the name both in terms of what it stands for and its uniqueness.”

Emily Ratajkowski’s son was born in 2021 and she, along with the father of the boy, Sebastian Bear-McClard, decided to name their child Sylvester Apollo and give him the nickname Sly.

While the parents didn’t talk about the meaning of the name, the mom shared that she would like to raise her child with as few gender stereotypes as possible and not force a certain identity on him.

Reese Witherspoon has three kids that everyone can’t stop saying are their mom’s clones. Her youngest one she had with Jim Toth was born in 2012 and she named him Tennessee. People speculate that the mom could have been inspired by her home state’s name, or by the most famous male Tennessee playwright, Thomas Lanier Williams III, who chose Tennessee Williams as his pen name.

Bluebell Madonna is already 16 years old and her name has a beautiful story. Her mom, former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell, shared that the last few weeks of her pregnancy, she saw a lot of bluebells blooming when she went on a walk in the park. Then her own mother told her that the flower was actually rare, so the name of this precious flower seemed right for her future baby.

The middle name was carefully picked as well. The mom explained, “As she came out of my tummy, Bluebell had both arms wide in the air as if announcing, 'Hi, I'm here.' She was screaming her head off, as though she was shouting, 'Hello Wembley!' No one else has that name, apart from the Virgin Madonna and the singer, who I love."

Holly Madison had her daughter Rainbow Aurora with Pasquale Rotella in 2013. The name sounds really cool and its story has roots in Holly’s childhood.

The mom opened up, “A girl I went to school with was named Rainbow and I was always so jealous of that name. I never thought of it as a potential baby name until I was pregnant, though. It just popped into my head one day as if it was the perfect name for the baby. I picked Aurora because it’s my favorite Disney princess, but also because it is a word I heard a lot in Alaska where I grew up.”

Cameron Diaz has a daughter named Raddix, who she gave birth to in 2020. People were quite confused with the decision to give her such a name, but friends of the couple told US Weekly that they believe it is a combination of “rad” (one of their favorite words) and a translation of “new beginning.”

They also revealed that they were not surprised to learn what a weird name the parents picked: “It’s so like Cam and Benji to pick a quirky yet meaningful name.”

Kate Winslet’s son she had with Ned Abel Smith was named Bear Blaze and the name has quite an origin story.

The first name Bear comes from a person Kate knew who was nicknamed that because of how caring he was. The woman considered him an important figure in her life and she always really loved the name he was called.

The second name has an even more dramatic origin. Apparently, the actress started the relationship with Ned after staying on his dad’s island when a fire broke out and the actress saved her then future husband’s mom, so the couple basically met in a blaze.

Lea Michele and her husband Zandy Reich welcomed their baby boy in 2020 and settled on the name Ever Leo. The parents haven’t shared why they chose this name but people online had their own theories.

As Zandy Reich is Jewish and Lea’s dad is a Sephardic Jew, netizens believe that the name Ever, which has a lot of meanings and origins, is actually a Hebrew name meaning ‘beyond.’ And the second name Leo, which is of Latin origin, meaning ‘lion,’ represents the Italian side of Lea.

Deborah Harris

Whilst a few of these names are quite cute, there's a load of godawful ones that are really quite cruel to use for a child. It's as if being famous means that their children have to have designer branding . Ask any average child that has a name other kids or people that can make fun of if they like their name...

Kathryn Baylis

You do realize that this oddly-named generation is going to call their own kids Bill, Jane, John, Anne, etc. All very simple traditional names, as a backlash to all the playground teasing they got growing up.

Mike Sanchez

I feel like we just saw 78 posts in a row on bored panda about all the dumbass names people name kids these days and because these people are famous, its quirky and cool?!?!?

Deborah Harris

Whilst a few of these names are quite cute, there's a load of godawful ones that are really quite cruel to use for a child. It's as if being famous means that their children have to have designer branding . Ask any average child that has a name other kids or people that can make fun of if they like their name...

Kathryn Baylis

You do realize that this oddly-named generation is going to call their own kids Bill, Jane, John, Anne, etc. All very simple traditional names, as a backlash to all the playground teasing they got growing up.

Mike Sanchez

I feel like we just saw 78 posts in a row on bored panda about all the dumbass names people name kids these days and because these people are famous, its quirky and cool?!?!?