Uma Thurman Shares the Secrets of Her Baby’s Crazy Name

Friday, January 18th, 2013

Jimmy Fallon finally got Uma Thurman to spill the beans on the thinking behind her daughter’s crazy-long baby name. (In case you missed the breaking news last fall, her full name is Rosalind Arusha Arkadina Altalune Florence Thurman-Busson, though they just call her Luna for short).

Uma’s best excuse came from her daughter, Maya—that “I probably wouldn’t get to have any more children, so I just put every name that I liked into it,” she told Fallon.

So it looks like at least one of my theories for how the name came about was correct!

While I can understand that thinking—I have a whole slew of baby names stockpiled, but no plans to add anyone to our brood that isn’t a furry four-legged friend—I’m not sure that I would be brave enough to just slap five names on my kid. And I also think it’s kind of funny that even after all those names, they’re actually just calling her a shortened form of her third middle name. Maybe Altalune should have moved up to the second spot, at the very least, if Luna’s what they’re actually calling her.

But her story probably does make sense to those of us who’ve been battling our mates over what name to pick for our babies—we can just keep adding more and more names until everyone’s happy. (Except, of course, your kid, who will have to put all those names on official forms for the rest of their lives.)

You can watch Uma explain it all in this video here:

Photo: Uma Thurman via s_bukley / Shutterstock.com

What Happened With Baby Names in 2012

Thursday, December 13th, 2012

It’s that time of year again, when every media outlet summarizes the big stories of the year. (Sometimes, I think I might just skip watching CNN and reading the newspaper and just catch up on everything I missed, splashed in stylish slideshows, when the year ends.)

So here’s my year in review, of everything baby name related:

• Stars are keeping their baby names secret—and that reticence seems to spur even bigger hoopla over their babies. It took months for Sarah Michelle Gellar and Uma Thurman to finally reveal their babies’ names. And we still don’t know what Adele or Stephen Moyer and Anna Paquin picked for their babies.

• We’re totally obsessed with what Wills and Kate will name their baby (or is it babies???). My blog post speculating on potential royal baby names was already one of the most popular ones this year. I’m looking forward to finding out if my guesses were anywhere near correct.

• We’re asking for help with our baby names. Yahoo! CEO Marisa Mayer famously crowdsourced her son’s name (MacAllister), but other people are turning toward naming experts or simply posting their options on websites like ours looking for opinions. (And hey, if you do want some free advice, feel free to send your dilemma our way at lamilbrand@gmail.com.)

• Stars are still choosing offbeat baby names. I’ve chosen my 10 most intriguing celebrity baby names, but there was no scarcity of interesting choices that didn’t make the cut. Like Jason Lee’s Sonny, or Sienna Miller’s Marlowe Ottoline. Of course, celebrities don’t have the monopoly on weird baby names—just consider poor Hashtag Jameson.

• We’ve already rounded up our top Parents.com baby names. And some of the top names on our site might surprise you (Bradley for a boy—Cadence for a girl, for instance?)

• I made my predictions of some of the hottest baby names for 2013. If you’re picking Olive or Declan and thinking your kiddo will be the only one sporting that name in preschool, think again.

What do you think was the most interesting baby name story of the year? Share it in the comments below. (And don’t forget to like In Name Only on Facebook, so you can keep up with the coolest names of the week, the latest in celebrity baby name news, and all things baby names!)

Photo: 2012 by © Devi /Shutterstock.com

Celebrity Babies: Uma Thurman Gives Her Daughter a Really, Really Long Name

Thursday, October 18th, 2012

Did you have the urge to give your kid five names to just make sure you got to use all of your favorites? Well, Uma Thurman and Arpad Busson could not resist that urge, and gave their daughter a name long enough for royalty: Rosalind Arusha Arkadina Altalune Florence Thurman-Busson. Though thankfully, her friends and family have given her the nickname “Luna,” so that they don’t have to muddle through all of those exotic “A” names in the middle to get her to pay attention. So, here’s the scoop on each of Miss Luna’s many varied names.

Rosalind is a Spanish name that means “beautiful rose.” It’s a name that has some fabulous history, as the heroine of one of Shakespeare’s coolest comedies, “As You Like It,” and the actress Rosalind Russell, who happened to star in one of my all-time favorite movies, “His Girl Friday.” (If you haven’t ever checked it out, you should!) I really love the name, and think it’s one that deserves a comeback. (And given that Rose and Lily and Violet are all hot now, I think it’s only a matter of time.)

Arusha is a Sanskrit name that means red, and seems like a fitting choice, given that Uma’s name is also of Sanskrit origin.

Arkadina is the  name of a character in Anton Chekov’s play, “The Seagull”—the character is an actress.

Altalune means “high moon,” and doesn’t seem to exist as a baby name at this point.

And last but not least, there’s Florence, the Latin name that means “flourishing,” and an old-fashioned moniker that hasn’t hit the top 1000 since the 1980s. (Though probably poised for a comeback, thanks to the rock band Florence and the Machine.)

What do I think of the name? Well, I think three names probably would have done the job more than sufficiently. I would have skipped the Arkadina and the Altalune. And I’m a little sad that they’re not actually calling her Rosalind, as that is a lovely name.

What do you think? Should they have stopped at two names, three—or used all five? Are there any names that stand out as a possibility for you?

Photo: Uma Thurman by cinemafestival / Shutterstock.com

The Latest Trend in Celebrity Baby Names: Secret Names

Tuesday, September 25th, 2012

Once upon a time, celebrities gave their babies crazy names that were guaranteed to grab headlines: We’re looking at you, Jason Lee (dad of Pilot Inspektor) and Gwyneth Paltrow (mom of Apple and Moses).

But now, stars are making news by refusing to spill the beans on what moniker they gave their latest bundle of joy. Uma Thurman’s daughter is two months old, and only her inner circle knows what she named her (her older kids are named Maya and Levon, so we’re imagining she hasn’t gone for Jane or Ava). True Blood’s Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer have twins—and not only do we not know their names, we also have no idea whether they’re boys or girls. And now, Sarah Michelle Gellar and Freddie Prinze have a new son to join daughter Charlotte Grace, but we have no idea what they’ve named him. And that sets the media world (including humble blogs like mine) in a tizzy. I’ve found oodles of posts with people guessing what these celebs might have named their kids, but no confirmation that any of those guesses are anywhere close to correct.

I’ll chalk this latest celebrity trend up to the current popularity among non-celeb parents of keeping the baby’s name under wraps until birth. With so much of their life played out on display for the hordes of paparazzi and the insatiable public appetite, perhaps these stars simply want to keep one slice of their lives away from prying eyes. And I can’t exactly blame them (even though I am interested in discovering what they named their babies).

What do you think? Do you care whether celebrities reveal their babies’ names? And what would you do if you were in their situation?

Photo by nito / Shutterstock.com