Out of Africa: Angelina & Brad's Baby Is Born, Plus Stars and Adopting

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt's much-anticipated baby has been born in Namibia on May 27, according to Brad Pitt's publicist, Cindy Guagenti. Named Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt, this baby's birth has been closely watched, given the extreme secrecy and exotic locale of the event.

Shiloh has a range of meanings, including "the gift" or "peaceful," and is of Hebrew origin, according to Celebrity Baby Blog.

Jolie, the Academy Award-winning actress of Girl, Interrupted (1999) who'll be seen next in The Good Shepherd and Beowulf, seems to have a special connection to Africa. She filmed the movie Beyond Borders in Namibia in 2002; served as a Goodwill Ambassador to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Sierra Leone in 2001; adopted her second child, Zahara Marley, in Ethiopia in 2005; and seemed determined to experience childbirth in Namibia in 2006.

Angelina & Brad on International Adoption

Maddox Chivan, 4, who was adopted by Jolie from Cambodia in March 2002, was not formally adopted by Billy Bob Thornton, Jolie's husband at the time. In July 2005, Jolie went to Ethiopia with Pitt to adopt her second child, the then 5-month-old Zahara Marley. According to the BBC, US Superior Court Judge Linda Lefkowitz granted the request that both of Jolie's children could use Pitt's name, giving the children the surname Jolie-Pitt.

Jolie told the television program Celebrity Justice in 2005: "I prefer to adopt. With every adoption, I save a further child from the orphanage." Jolie also told ABC News in February 2006 that she'd "love to adopt just a bunch more kids," and said her children were special to her because "we chose each other."

Celebrities Who Adopt

Other celebrities who have adopted -- domestically and internationally -- are:
--Sharon Stone, 47, who adopted a baby named Laird Vonne Stone in May 2005, and also adopted Roan in 2000
--Calista Flockhart, 41, who adopted Liam in 2001
--Meg Ryan, 44, who adopted Daisy from China this winter
--Edie Falco, 42, who adopted Anderson in March 2005
--Ewan McGregor, 35, who adopted a 4-year-old girl from Mongolia in April 2006
--Mia Farrow, 61, who has raised 10 adopted kids

Last year, Americans adopted nearly 22,000 children internationally, according to Richard Fischer, the publisher of Adoption Today magazine, compared to the 121,000 kids adopted domestically.

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