Celebrity Names Blog

Jackie & Tara Return: Why Did These Two Names Make the Cut?

Jackie & Tara Return: Why Did These Two Names Make the Cut?

Showtime's so-called "Feel-Good Mondays" brought the return of Jackie and Tara, with the season premieres of Nurse Jackie and United States of Tara.  It's not that often a series centers around a female character and bears her name in its title, but here Edie Falco and Toni Collette show why it should happen more often.  Character names are always important, but when in the title that importance doubles -- not only must the name tell the story of a character, it must represent the show.  With that in mind, what do you think of the name choices made by the shows' creators?

Here's some food for naming thought:

Nurse Jackie

As viewers familiar with hospital shows may guess, Nurse Jackie Peyton is a no-nonsense nurse.  She's tough and a straight-talker.  Well, a straight-talker except when she's covering up her drug use and her affair.  Why the name Jackie?  Does the name Jackie tell a different story than names with a similar feel, such as Carol, Barb or Joan?

Read More...

What's In a Name? Jesse James

Tattooed mechanic/ex-roadie/television personality/Mr. Sandra Bullock Jesse James  has been all over the tabloid news the past week over an alleged extra-marital affair with an even more tattooed adult performer nicknamed "Bombshell." The news surfaced barely a week after James's wife, Sandra Bullock received a Best Actress Academy Award for her performance in the

Read More...

The Name Cyrus Rising?

At a screening of the movie The Runaways this weekend, we caught the trailer for the upcoming movie Cyrus, a quirky film about dysfunctional romantic and family relationships that was apparently a crowd favorite at this year's Sundance film festival (one review asks "Is Cyrus this year's Juno?").  When we Googled the movie, we discovered there's another movie called Cyrus currently in production (this one subtitled Mind of a Serial Killer). And with Miley Cyrus due on the big screen next weekend

Read More...

What's Your Favorite Star Really Named: Tina Turner & Elton John

What's Your Favorite Star Really Named: Tina Turner & Elton John

Our What's Your Favorite Star Really Named Series continues with two names known to millions, if not billions.  Tina Turner and Elton John are more than singers, more than divas, more than household names -- they are megawatt superstars.  But as you've listened to their voices over the years and followed their personal life dramas, have you been aware that you know Tina Turner and Elton John by their stage names?

Read on to find out Tina and Elton's birth names.  Then it's time for Stage Name vs. Birth Name to see how the two compare!

Read More...

New Baby Alert: Avery Elizabeth McGraw

New Baby Alert: Avery Elizabeth McGraw

It's a girl for self-help author/television producer Jay McGraw and his wife Playboy model Erica Dahm.  According to PEOPLE, the baby, named Avery Elizabeth McGraw arrived Thursday March 17. Baby Avery is the first grandchild for television psychologist "Dr. Phil" McGraw.  In her book The Baby Name Wizard, Laura Wattenberg describes the name Avery as "Light and nimble as a bird, Avery is a lyrical

Read More...

Rielle: Formula for an Infamous Name

Vienna is so last week -- this week, Rielle is the Infamous Name du Jour.

Rielle Hunter -- equestrian star, actor, American Psycho-author inspiration, political ad strategist, and mother of John Edward's love child (seriously, read her bio) -- appeared in GQ this week (in her skivvies, pearls, and a man's shirt) in a tell-all interview, and now her name is all over the press.

So what can we tell you about this name? (Read on to find out our formula for crafting a Name of Infamy!)

Read More...

The Brady Bunch

The Brady Bunch

A few weeks ago Florence Henderson visited Broadway to host a benefit, Broadway Backwards.  Mrs. Brady is now 76 years old, and yet can still sing and dance up a storm!  Throughout the night she was referred to as Mrs. Brady, a testament to the lingering power of The Brady Bunch, which ran from 1969-1974.  This show has one of television's most memorable theme songs, as like it or not, it sticks in your mind -- Here's the story of a lovely lady, who was bringing up three very lovely girls...   And the actress behind Carol Brady is just as lovely now as when the show aired.  Inspired by her graceful aging, we thought it time to revisit the names of The Brady Bunch and see how they've gotten on over the years.

CAROLINE (CAROL) ANN

Florence Henderson was born in 1934, so if we assume age parity between actress and actor, in the decade Carol was born, Carol ranked #11 and Caroline #178.  Both at Carol/Florence birth-time and when The Brady Bunch debuted, Carol was the much more popular choice -- at #38 in the 1960s and #30 in the 1970s, whereas Caroline was at #208 and #215 respectively.  But Caroline gets the last laugh.

Keep reading to find out more about Mike, Greg, Peter, Bobby, Marcia, Jan, Cindy & Alice!

Read More...

Top Four Name News Stories of the Day

What they named a baby born in a livery-cab, Lindsay Lohan sues over a fictional baby named Lindsay, and why The Office's Jenna Fischer lobbied for Cecelia.

Read More...

Remember Me: Are Ally & Tyler Names You'll Never Forget?

Remember Me: Are Ally & Tyler Names You'll Never Forget?

Remember Me hit theaters last night, staring man of the moment Robert Pattinson.  No longer playing a vampire, this time he is Tyler, a man of flesh and blood, falling in love with a woman named Ally, played by Emilie de Ravin.  Is the "me" in the title referring to the young lovers?  Will they end up together, remembering each other while living happily ever after, or is thisPhantom of the Opera-Style "Think of Me?"  "Remember me" is one of the most famous lines in theater -- near the beginning of the Hamlet, it is the ghost's request/demand of his son.  But here's the main question on our minds right now: are these names to remember?

Read on to find out if Tyler and Ally will leave a lasting impression.

Read More...

Vienna Waits for You

Anyone who's strolled down the supermarket checkout line in the past few weeks has seen the name Vienna plastered across the tabloid covers. At the moment, the name Vienna is most famously attached to reality-television star, The Bachelor winner/villainess, Vienna Girardi. In case you missed this season of the reality dating show, Vienna was the subject of much gossip and speculation. To say she was unpopular among the other

Read More...