A name can be considered attractive because of its associations with a special person: a beautiful singer,
a movie star, or the main character in an exciting or touching book. In turn, you may envision a personality
for your child. Dad may dream of playing basketball with a son that has the same name as his favorite player,
for example. Dad, in this case, should consider that his newborn son may not grow up to be athletic at all.
Perhaps he won’t even care for basketball. It is important that bestowing such a name is not expecting
a child to be something that they might not be.
It’s a fact that many children are named
after famous people. One should
realize, however, that people that
are famous at the moment could
suddenly become unpopular.
They could make headlines in such a
negative way that it could make your
child’s life difficult. An example of this is what happened in the 1930’, in Germany, with the name Adolph. After World War II, many boys who were given that name had to change it. Many simply went by Dolf or Dolph. In this way, naming your child after a celebrity who is still living involves a risk, since you don’t know what the future will bring for that person. A popular singer could hit rock bottom, or become the subject for ridicule. In such a case, your daughter might not be very happy with her namesake...OR her name!
Our advice:
Think twice before you decide to name your child after a celebrity. If you really have a strong
desire to do so, you can consider doing it. However, it’s clear that there are considerable risks.
When making your decision, take into consideration that it isn’t you but your child that has to
keep the name and that he or she is from a different generation than you are.
Why Google?:
Google Kai was born on September 12, 2005, in Sweden. His Lebanese father, Dr Kai, says: “When my
wife and I discovered that she was pregnant, the first thing I said was: ‘let’s name our kid Google.’
Everyone was laughing and nobody took me seriously. I remember my brother saying: ‘and call the
next child Yahoo Fuji Nikon.’ When it was time to register the child’s birth, I suggested the name
Google Kai. My wife knows that I’m a major Google fan and took me seriously immediately.”
Dr. Methad Kai
Why Kayleigh?:
“Ever since we were young, my husband and I were crazy about a song by the band Marillion: ‘Kayleigh’.
We told each other that if we ever married and had a daughter, we would name her Kayleigh.
It all came true exactly as we’d hoped; our first one was a daughter…”
Anabel Marshall
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