The altogether odd baby names game
Apple. Bluebell Madonna. Princess Tiaamii. Buddy Bear. Now, to this unedifying lexicon of baby names, we can add North, relatively inoffensive on its own, less so when we hear it is destined for the unborn son of rapper Kanye West. According to reports, West has been telling friends he likes the way North sounds with his surname.
But West can hardly be blamed for not wanting to call his son William or Jack, when his girlfriend is Kim Kardashian, of the reality TV clan, whose matriarch Kris named her other daughters Kourtney and Khloe.
The anticipation to know what crazy moniker the next hatching celebrity will reveal is almost as entertaining as wondering whether Jennifer Aniston is finally pregnant.
The tradition was initiated in 1971 when David Bowie named his first-born Zowie (his son later changed his name to Duncan Jones). His friend and musical rival Marc Bolan retaliated by naming his son Rolan, while their pal Frank Zappa went one further by choosing Moon Unit, Dweezil, Diva and Ahmet for his children.
Since then we’ve seen Jermaine Jackson’s Jermajesty, Gwen Stefani’s Zuma Nesta Rock and Mia Farrow and Woody Allen’s Satchel.
“Part of a celebrity’s job description is to attract attention at a conscious or an unconscious level, so inevitably they’ll want to give their child a name that stands out,” says clinical psychologist Linda Blair.
But it’s not just the famous. Last year in the U.K., Harry and Amelia were the most popular names, but birth certificates were also issued for, among others, a Tinkerbell, Buzzbee, Hendrix, Diesel and Bentley.
The software engineer Anna Powell-Smith has developed England and Wales Baby Names, an app charting Office for National Statistics data over the past 15 years.
“Looking at the data, you can see instantly the strong swing toward more unusual names,” Powell-Smith says. In 1996, the ONS reported that each name was “shared” on average among 74 babies. But by 2010, as parents’ choices grew more eclectic, there had been a sharp fall, with approximately 55 babies for each name.
According to Laura Wattenberg, who founded the equivalent U.S. site, The Baby Name Wizard, the trend for different names has been accelerating on both sides of the Atlantic since the free-living Sixties.
According to a recent poll, eight per cent of parents come to regret the name they have chosen for their child. Of these, half admit to having been swayed by passing fads.
A further third believe they’ve made original choices only to find a dozen small heads turning whenever they call out to little Lily or Zac (in my neighbourhood, at least) in the playground.
If your heart is set on a name, Justine Roberts advises not to broadcast it.
Advice Kanye West could have done with — though once the boy is born in August, few will care. By then, we will be too busy dwelling on the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s choice for their newborn. Bookies’ favourites are Elizabeth and John. But Killiam would make a refreshing change.