What's In A Name

I heard over the radio today that Geri Haliwell (Ginger Spice) named her daughter Bluebell Madonna. This continues the tradition that another Spice Girl, Melanie Brown started (having named her daughters Fortuna and Phoenix Chi).

Now, when I was younger I had decided that my child's name would be Cybil, after the lead actress in Moonlighting. Years later I saw the movie Amelie, fell in love with it (and with Audrey Tautou), and used that instead. So there's probably a method to the madness of celebs naming their kids. Here are some of the more interesting ones:

• Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes: Suri. Depending where you are, it could mean "princess" (Hebrew), "sun" (Indian) or "pickpocket" (Japanese). It can also refer to an edible grub in the Amazon, or an alpaca.
  
• Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin: Apple Blythe Alison. Actually, "Apple" isn't that bad; I knew a girl named Apple...
  
• Julia Roberts: Phinnaeus Walter. Around the World in 80 Days fan, perhaps?
  
• Bruce Willis and Demi Moore: Rumer, Scout and Tallulah. "Fame", "Observer" and "Princess"--unless she's named after the famous actress.
  
• Angelina Jolie: Maddox, Pax, Zahara and Shiloh. "Generous", "Peace", "Flower" and "Messiah". Her youngest got stuck with a name that's a bit hard to live up to, don't you think?
• Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger: Ireland. Not quite sure about naming kids after countries--um, not that Roman is taken from a city or anything...
  
• Britney Spears: Sean Preston seems normal enough, but Jayden James is a bit unusual. This is kinda like Apple, though, in that there are people named Jayden/Jaden that I know.
• Edge: Blue Angel. Fun times when she grows up. "Why is your name Blue Angel?" "Ask my dad Edge." "O-kay."
  
• Nicolas Cage: Kal-El. Up, up and away! I think he took his role as Superman a bit too seriously (ironically, he never did go on to play the part)
• Robert Rodriguez: Four sons, named Rocket, Racer, Rebel and Rogue. Pretty cool, actually. His daughter's named Rhiannon, which is a bit more common.
• Gwen Stefani and Gavin Rossdale: Kingston. He'll probably be a computer engineer someday.

My favorite child name, though, is the one that the daughter of Penn Jillette carries: Moxie Crimefighter.