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

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.”

Nicolas Cage and his second wife Alice Kim had one son and they named him Kal-El. The actor revealed that his then-wife wanted something unique and that sounded exotic, but was American and stood for something good at the same time. So they chose Superman’s real name that he was given when he was born on the Krypton planet.

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.”

Will and Jada Pinkett Smith's kids' names don’t sound that weird, but you may not have realized that they both are named after their parents. The daughter Willow is named after her father Will, whose full name is actually Willard, and the son, Jaden, is named in honor of his mom Jada.

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.

Jason Derulo and his girlfriend Jena Frumes welcomed their first baby last year and named him Jason King Derulo. Because the singer’s brother and sister have girls, he feared that the Derulo name might disappear, so wanting his name to be carried, he named the boy after himself.

Alicia Silverstone and her husband’s Christopher Jarecki’s son is 11 years old and he has his grandmother to thank for his name. Bear and Blue were the names suggested by Jarecki’s mom and they both ended up in the final name list. Alicia couldn’t decide which one she liked most and Christopher preferred Bear or Blu, so the boy ended up with both names.

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.

Bruce Willis’ daughter Rumer is already grown up and will be turning 34 this August. Her parents named her after the British novelist Margaret Rumer Godden, whose books were turned into movies, the best known of which are Black Narcissus in 1947 and The River in 1951.

Ashlee Simpson gave birth to her youngest child in 2015 and the girl was named Jagger Snow. While the parents didn’t comment much on the unusual name seemingly referring to Mick Jagger, a source did reveal to E! News that the parents “had their minds set on this name for a long time.” Also, “They wanted something fun and different.”

Frank and Gail Zappa remained married until death did them part and in their lives, they had 4 children together. They named their firstborn Moon Unit and the mom explained why they went with such an unusual one: “He said, ‘You can name it Moon or Motorhead.’ So of course, I know it’s going to be Moon. You know, you’re not (truly) related to your partner in life until you have a child together. So we became a family unit and that’s the significance of Moon’s middle name.”

Julia Stiles had her first child in 2017 and shared her joys of being a mom online. She received a lot of criticism for the baby’s name and one photo in particular in which people thought she was holding her baby incorrectly, to which she even wrote an Instagram response.

The mom didn’t share the origin story of her baby’s name and she is actually quite private when it comes to parenting. There is not much on the internet about her baby and her response to those criticizing other moms is to try to focus on their own children, enjoying their company.

Pete Wentz and Meagan Camper had their first daughter in 2018. The parents announced they gave her the name Marvel Jane and left people wondering where it came from. PopBuzz’s theory is that the name is “likely a nod to the Marvel comic book universe, as well as to her mother Meagan, whose middle name is also Jane. 'Marvel' is also a word meaning ‘to be filled with wonder.’”

Amber Rose and Alexander Edward's son has quite an eccentric name. The parents went ahead and gave him a name that refers to the music world, as music is such a big part of Alexander’s life. The first part of the name, Slash, is a tribute to the guitarist from Guns N’ Roses, Saul Hudson, who is better known by his performance name, Slash. The second part of the name is Electric and it just refers to the fact that Slash of Guns N’ Roses played an electric guitar.

Jamie Oliver has 5 children with his wife Juliette Norton, who he married in 2000. They aren't afraid to give their children more unique names: Poppy Honey Rosie, Petal Blossom Rainbow, Daisy Boo, River Rocket Blue and Buddy Bear Maurice.

The mom said that all of their children have more than one name just because she couldn’t decide. She also added that she didn’t like people commenting on babies' names because it’s the parents' decision and right.

Toni Braxton had her children with her husband Keri Lewis. The first son, Denim, was born in 2001 and Diezel joined the family in 2003.

The mom revealed why her children were named after what seems to be materials: “My son Denim, it was supposed to be spelled D-e-n-h-a-m, like Oldham, but when we were in the hospital, in Atlanta, the nurse said ‘how’s little baby Den-ham?’ So we started spelling it like the jean. I changed it to the jean. Some people say it’s French, and some people say it’s English. Diezel – my husband is half German, so Diezel is after, what is it, Rudolph Diesel, who did the diesel engine? Diesel is a German name.”

Gwen Stefani and Gavin Rossdale, to whom she was married in 2008 when they had their son, named the boy Zuma Nesta Rock. Neither of the parents shared what is the meaning behind the name, but people believe they might have been inspired by the Zuma Beach in Malibu. Nesta is a word in Welsh that means ‘pure.’ Not only that, but it was actually Bob Marley’s middle name as well. The last part of the name, Rock, may refer to the music genre, as both of the parents are singers, or it could refer to No Doubt’s third album, Rock Steady.

Thomas Pentz, better known by his stage name Diplo, has three sons. He had his second child with Kathryn Lockhart in 2014 and the pair named the boy Lazer Lee Louis. While the true meaning behind the name is not known, many people believe that it most likely refers to Diplo’s project Major Lazer, founded in 2008.

In 2014, rapper Lil Kim gave birth to her first and only child, Royal Reign. The little girl was born with a rare eye condition known as congenital ptosis. It means that one of Royal Reign’s eyelids droops. The asymmetrical eyes were the center of attention when the girl was first born, but it seems that it’s going away little by little.

As for the girl’s name, the mom hasn’t talked about it publicly or given any explanation, but it’s probably safe to assume that she considers her child a princess, so she has to have a royal name.

Grimes gave birth to Elon Musk’s second child this year and people couldn’t wait to hear what name the parents came up with this time. The parents gave her the name Exa Dark Sideræl and explained that the part Exa refers to the supercomputing term exaFLOPS. The mom associates the second name Dark with the unknown, which people fear, but the dark is just a space where there are no photons. And lastly, Sideræl, pronounced as "sigh-deer-ee-el," was chosen because it means “The true time of the universe, star time, deep space time, not our relative earth time” but its spelling has an elven touch.

Jason Lee and Beth Riesgraf named their first child, born in 2003, Pilot Inspektor and it was actually inspired by a song. He told Entertainment Weekly that he really liked the opening track of the indie rock band Grandaddy's 2000 album The Sophtware Slump called He's Simple, He's Dumb, He's the Pilot. It was his wife Beth’s idea to name their son Pilot.

Bear Grylls and Shara Grylls have three sons. The youngest one was born in 2009 and received the name Huckleberry. The word itself is a name for a berry similar to a blueberry and it became more popular as a boy’s name because of the famous character created by Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn.

Marmaduke is the middle child, born in 2006. The name Marmaduke has Irish origins and the person who wears it is a follower of Maedoc. Both of these names are not very popular, unlike the oldest son’s name, Jesse, which is quite common.

In 2011, Mariah Carey gave birth to twins, a boy and a girl. She asked Twitter to guess their names and later announced that her son would be Moroccan Scott and her daughter would be called Monroe.

Monroe was named after Marilyn Monroe, which Mariah admired. But Moroccan has a more intriguing story. Mariah’s future husband at the time, Nick Cannon, proposed to the woman on the top floor of Carey's New York City apartment where the decor was filled with Moroccan features.