[identity profile] twitchywoman.livejournal.com posting in [community profile] babynames
I saw this on my Yahoo! homepage, I was sad that they had to reference "baby-name expert Jennifer Moss" because I can't stand her, but hey whatever, it's name related.  I actually did a little research on names and celebrity effects on them, about two months ago and yeah I noticed a lot of the same findings.

Is Knox Gold? Vivienne the Next Isabella?

Sun., Jul. 13, 2008 1:25 PM PDT by Joal Ryan

As Knox and Vivienne may or may not know, their famous parents are trendsetters. In the world of baby names.

Among girls, Shiloh, the name given to the daughter born to Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt in 2006, cracked the top 1,000 most popular baby names last year for the first time, U.S. Social Security online records show.

Among boys, Maddox, the name bestowed upon the son adopted by Jolie in 2002 (and by Pitt in 2006), debuted in the top 1,000 in 2003—likewise, one year after making Hollywood headlines.

So, will the names of the twins born last night to the couple, boy Knox Leon and girl Vivienne Marcheline, be similarly emulated?

"Celebrities have a huge influence on baby-naming—as long as it's not too wacky," says baby-name expert Jennifer Moss, founder of BabyNames.com.

Knox is unusual, although not unheard of, à la Moxie CrimeFighter (the name Penn Jillette gave to his daughter)—it was, in fact, the middle name of Pitt's maternal grandfather, Hal Knox Hillhouse.

Vivienne is more well known. In the early 20th century, it was regularly among the 1,000 most popular girl names. Its most recent year on the chart, however, was 1930.

Sometimes all an out-of-favor classic like Vivienne needs is the boost of a celebrity endorsement. Consider the case of Isabella.

A turn-of-the-20th-century standby that ranked in the 300s and 400s, Isabella failed to make the top 1,000 for 40 years, from 1949 to 1989. It staged a comeback in the early 1990s, and stood at 319th in 1993—the same year Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman selected the name for their eldest child.

A year later, Isabella cleared the top 250, and didn't look back. Last year, it was No. 2—an ascendancy Moss sees as directly related to Cruise and Kidman.

But not all that celebrities touch is gold.

Suri, the name given to Cruise's first child with Katie Holmes in 2006, hasn't inspired an Isabella-esque surge. The name wasn't in the top 1,000 before, and it's not in there now—a non-trend, if you will, that Moss also finds telling.

Cruise, she says, "[is] falling out with the general public…Also, people think there's a Scientology [connection]."

Among the celebrity baby name class of 2006, for whom the most recent data applies, no name has come farther than Shiloh, which went from unchartered territory to 804th in 2007.

Others: Sadie (Adam Sandler), which rose from 157th in 2006 to 106th last year; Moses (Gwyneth Paltrow-Chris Martin), which sunk from 446th in 2006 to 464th last year; and Dannielynn (Anna Nicole Smith-Larry Birkhead), which remains in the outer reaches of baby-name land, along with Suri.

Moss expects Shiloh, with its Biblical roots to go along with the Jolie-Pitt endorsement, to stick around. "I think it'll definitely go higher," she says.

Not all the Jolie and Pitt picks, however, are climbing. Zahara, the name of the couple's eldest child, has yet to make a Top 1,000 appearance. Pax hasn't, either, although that's understandable—the stars' adoption of the boy made the news just last year.

The early reviews for Knox and Vivienne are good. Wrote a poster (or three) on Celebrity Babies Blog today: "Love the names!"

Moss sees Vivienne and the girl's middle name, Marcheline, after Jolie's late mother, as having real potential.

"I think [they'll] probably bring back more French-sounding names," Moss says. "Vivienne and Marcheline are really beautiful names, and I think they'll probably rise in popularity."

As for Knox? "He'll probably get 'School of Hard Knox,'" Moss says. "But it's a respectable name."  

http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/b146229_knox_gold_vivienne_next_isabella.html?sid=rss_topstories&utm_source=eonline&utm_medium=rssfeeds&utm_campaign=rss_topstories

Date: 2008-07-14 12:29 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] amspeck-myworld.livejournal.com
I have very mixed feelings on this - Vivienne has been in my top 5 or 10 girl names for ages, and already I feel like I should push it more towards the bottom of my list due to the forseeable surge in popularity and the 'Did you name her that because...' comments (This were very annoying after my son Owen, repeatedly asked if we named him after I footballer I'd barely heard of!). Very mixed.
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Date: 2008-07-14 04:07 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] th3-unicorn.livejournal.com
Lolly lolly :D

Date: 2008-07-14 04:43 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] sandtree.livejournal.com
LOL, perfect.

Date: 2008-07-14 02:50 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] sevensevenfour.livejournal.com
I've really liked the name Knox for a long time. Luckily, I hate the way it sounds with my SO's last name so it can become as popular as it wants. Haha.

Date: 2008-07-14 03:00 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] elemmennope.livejournal.com
The Mosses are idiots. They know nothing about names/care nothing about names. They just lucked out on getting the best url early on, recognized it as a money making opportunity and have milked it for all it's worth. Citing them as "name experts" is a total joke.

Date: 2008-07-14 03:12 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] arbus.livejournal.com
am i the only one who hates the fact that there was an entire ARTICLE on what the jolie-pitts name their children?

i love names as much as all of you, i just despise angelina jolie, so its probably just me.

Date: 2008-07-14 08:48 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] schexyschteve.livejournal.com
Ugh, I can't stand Angelina Jolie. People act like she's a messiah. @_@

Date: 2008-07-14 09:03 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] duckduckcaboose.livejournal.com
Well, honestly, though... it's not like she asked for it. People are just really fascinated my by celebrities and now they feel the NEED to comment on EVERYTHING celebrities do.

We are just as bad here, really. Every time a new baby is born, celebrity or not, we rush here to get opinions, right?

I dunno... the woman just had her abdomen sliced open to deliver these kids, and while I know that it's something many women have to do (I was a C-Section baby), she's not exempt from having a shitty time of it just because she's a celebrity. And she does a lot of good things with her fame, unlike 90% of the idiots in Hollywood.

Date: 2008-07-14 05:07 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] spikes-sexkitty.livejournal.com
F*CK!!!!F*CK!!!!F*CK!!!!F*CK!!!!F*CK!!!!F*CK!!!!F*CK!!!!F*CK!!!!F*CK!!!!F*CK!!!!F*CK!!!!F*CK!!!!F*CK!!!!F*CK!!!!F*CK!!!!F*CK!!!!F*CK!!!!F*CK!!!!

I hate Jolie now... seriously.

it was bad enough that first Aiden and it's varients became uber popular.... then it was Atticus and Liam gaining momentum.... and now, one of the FEW girl names i adored and had on my final list of names will shoot up in popularity too b/c of them! Vivienne - spelled JUST like that. argh.... there goes one more off the list i guess. :(

Date: 2008-07-14 05:48 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] girlsteve.livejournal.com
Sigh...I really really like Vivienne and I like Marcheline. Great name choice, even if it has just become annoyingly unusable.

Knox, on the other hand, I don't like at all.
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Date: 2008-07-14 07:58 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] kellyjoy.livejournal.com
I like Suri too. I would never use it because the association is too strong, but I just like the way it sounds.

Date: 2008-07-14 08:58 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] duckduckcaboose.livejournal.com
I like Apple AND Suri... but to me, Suri sounds like a boys' name.
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Date: 2008-07-14 09:20 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] duckduckcaboose.livejournal.com
I think Suri sounds masculine to me because Suri=Surrey in my mind and most English place names are masculine... Kent, London (I know it's considered unisex, but it's masculine to me), Brighton...

Date: 2008-07-15 12:26 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] mrandmrschippy.livejournal.com
Is that how Suri is pronounced? I always thought it was Soo-ree, not Suh-ree.

Date: 2008-07-15 12:28 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] duckduckcaboose.livejournal.com
I have always, always, always heard her name said "Suh-ree".

Date: 2008-07-15 12:53 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] mrandmrschippy.livejournal.com
Oh, good to know. We don't get much Suri-news on TV here, so I don't think I've ever heard anyone say the name.

Date: 2008-07-15 03:59 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ladymela99.livejournal.com
To me Suri with the last name Cruise sounds like Syracruse (where Tom is from I believe)

I'm scared that they are going to have another child and name them Toledo.

Date: 2008-07-14 08:58 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] duckduckcaboose.livejournal.com
If it's any consolation to the fact that they chose to interview Jennifer Moss... the "name expert" shares her name with a well-known nudist that gets arrested all the time.

Anyways, I think it really just depends on the name more than the celebs. I mean, sometimes they choose more unique names that people haven't heard and they're like "Oh yeah, maybe I like that." For example, I bet Violet became more popular after Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner used it... because it's a pretty name! I hate Ben Affleck, but I'd totally name my kid Violet.

Date: 2008-07-14 10:52 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] inmeggsyoutrust.livejournal.com
zahara isn't the eldest child. she's the older GIRL. but she's not older than maddox or pax.

Date: 2008-07-15 12:20 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] mrandmrschippy.livejournal.com
Well, she's right about Hard Knox. It's already his nn on dlisted.com.

There is a glimmer of hope to be gleaned from the fact that people haven't jumped blindly onto the Suri and Dannielynn babyname bandwagon.


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