Alyssa Milano Gives Birth to a Boy

Alyssa Milano gave birth to her first baby this morning. If you haven't already heard, she named her son Milo Thomas. What's the story behind her baby name choice? Linda Rosenkrantz and Pamela Redmond  of Nameberry offer their insight on the celebrity baby name.

Alyssa Milano and husband David Bugliari have named their newborn son Milo Thomas, joining a growing group of celebs who have chosen this lively, multi-cultural name. They were preceded in the Milo Club by Ricki Lake (the first, in 1998), Camryn Manhein, Sherry Springfield and Liv Tyler.

Baby Bugliari's middle name honors Alyssa's father, Thomas Milano. And the sharing of letters of Milo with Milano, makes a nice tie to mom's family name.

Milo was a fairly common name from the late 19th century until the 1950s, when it completely dropped off the charts until 2001, probably helped back by its celebrity connections. It now ranks at Number 422 on the Social Security's most popular names list.

Milo has roots in ancient Greek culture, as well as in the German and Irish. Its image combines the strength of the great ancient Greek wrestler of that name—a six-time winner of the Olympic games—with an energetic, modern o-ending feel. More recently Milo has been associated with the dashing Milo Ventimiglia, of the TV series Heroes, and as characters on Alias and in Atlantis: The Lost Empire.

Adults might associate the name with Milo Minderbinder in Catch-22, while kids will identify it with the cat in the movie Milo and Otis, and the main character in the children's classic The Phantom Tollbooth.

Linda Rosenkrantz and Pamela Redmond Satran are the creators of the baby name site Nameberry and the authors of ten bestselling books about names, including Cool Names for Babies and The Baby Name Bible.