A namesake is a wonderful thing to gift a child . Parents do this in the hopes that every time they call their child’s name, it will remind them of the love/passion that helped bring them into the world in the first place.
Nobody does this better than our favorite A-list celebrities . If you don’t believe me, have a look below and check out all these celebrities who named their kids after other famous people .
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Shakespeare once famously asked, “What’s in a name?”
Sure, a rose by any other name would still certainly smell as sweet, but you have to admit that “rose” has a much nicer sounding ring to it than “stink blossom.”
The point I’m getting at here is that names matter.
Our name is the first gift given to us by our parents. It’s the moniker by which we come to know ourselves, and how we differentiate from every other Tom, Dick, and Harry.
Over the course of the past few decades, there’s been a drastic overhaul as far as what constitutes a “normal” name.
Let’s face it: names up until very recently have been exceptionally bland and boring. I myself am best friends with three other Jordans and four members of my extended family are all named Michael.
In large part, we have celebrities to thank for expanding the playing field and for serving up new means of inspiration for baby names.
For example, did you know that Ashlee Simpson and Pete Wentz’s son has the middle name Mowgli?
The name is a nod to ‘The Jungle Book’ character of the same name.
Pete explained in an interview with Ryan Seacrest that Disney’s animated classic, The Jungle Book , was one of the first films they bonded over back when they were still dating.
In keeping with the Disney theme, Joel Madden and his wife Nicole Richie named their son, Sparrow.
At first, many people believed this was because Joel and Nicole were fans of The Pirates of the Caribbean , specifically the iconic Johnny Depp character, Jack Sparrow .
However, Madden later revealed the true source of his inspiration in a thinly veiled tweet.
“ A song for the little songbird ,” Joel wrote via his official Twitter page and included a link to the song “Sparrow” by Simon & Garfunkel.
Actor Norman Reedus and his ex-wife Helena Christensen came up with a name for their son that’s beyond unique.
Norman and Helena are huge jazz fans and decided to name their son Mingus after the great jazz bassist, Charles Mingus.
“I was more into Thelonious Monk, Chet Baker, Billie Holiday,” Helena explained to ‘The Independent’.
“But we thought ‘Mingus’ sounded cooler than ‘Monk’ for a first name,” she explained.
I personally would’ve liked the name Thelonius Reedus — it sounds like the name of a Roman general!
Speaking of musically-inspired names, you can probably guess how Fergie and Josh Duhamel came up with the name, Axl.
” Fergie is a huge Guns ‘N Roses fan ,” a source close to the singer explained to Us Weekly. ” One of her career highlights has been performing and recording with Slash – so Axl makes perfect sense.”
In a similar vein, Zoe Saldana and Marco Perego named one of their twins, Bowie.
Suffice it to say that Zoe didn’t name her baby after Jim Bowie, nor did she name him after the knife that bears his namesake. She named him after legendary rock icon, David Bowie .
Ironically enough, former pop sensation Victoria Beckham and her husband David didn’t name their daughter after an athlete or a musician.
David and Victoria’s daughter/youngest child is named Harper Seven, inspired by the world-renowned author and American novelist, Harper Lee.
“Victoria’s favorite book is ‘To Kill A Mockingbird,'” David explained in an interview per ‘On Demand Entertainment’.
“It’s a very strong, passionate book, and the author was Harper Lee , and that is where Harper came from,” the former soccer legend explained.
OK — that explains the first part, but what about the name Seven?
David continued on, saying that there are seven wonders of the world, seven colors of the rainbow and that the number seven in numerology holds great significance to many cultures around the world.
Moving on down the line, we arrive at Nick Cannon and Mariah Carey.
It’s a well-known fact that one of Mariah’s biggest influences growing up was Marilyn Monroe. Therefore, it only seemed appropriate that she would pass along the namesake to her daughter , Monroe Cannon.
Do you recall Jessa Duggar from TLC’s ’19 Kids And Counting’?
She and her husband, Ben Seewald, decided to name their firstborn son, Henry Wilberforce. They took inspiration from William Wilberforce, who was an 18th-century philanthropist as well as a politician.
Jessa and Ben named another one of their sons Spurgeon, after the British preacher Charles Spurgeon.
” He had a big impact on our lives ,” Ben explained to ABC News . “His writings and his sermons and books are still around today. They just continued to impact many, many people.”
While we’re on the subject of important historical figures, Dax Shepard and Kristin Bell came up with a truly patriotic name for their daughter.
Dax and Kristin named their daughter Lincoln , after Dax’s beloved 1967 town car that appears in their film, Hit and Run .
The automobile gets its namesake from the former President, therefore, Dax and Kristin indirectly named their daughter after the former POTUS.
All I can say is that it’s a good thing Dax didn’t drive an Impala. Otherwise, their daughter would be screwed.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle looked to members of their own Royal Family in order to come up with the name for their daughter.
Lillibet Diana is their daughter’s name, inspired both by the Queen as well as by Harry’s own mother, Princess Diana .
Finally, Beyoncé and Jay-Z decided to name their daughter after Queen Bey’s favorite poet.
Rumi Carter is a not-so-subtle nod to the 13th-century Persian poet, Rumi . Rumi Carter is the eldest twin and her brother is called Sir Carter.
