two_guns, you forgot to pick a category, didn't add tags and forgot to either end the headline with a full stop or make it a run on sentence. Cleaned that up for you.

Caroline | November 18, 15:49 CET

And it's Stefani…

Salocin | November 18, 16:09 CET

Aw!

Pointy | November 18, 16:16 CET

What a badly written story. On first read I thought it said that she wasn't going to name her child "an unusual name like Gwen."
And I thought "Gwen isn't that unusual!"
I do enjoy her enthusiasm over all the freebies though!

Lioness | November 18, 16:29 CET

Caroline- thanks, shows you how often I add a link.

two_guns | November 18, 16:43 CET

I understood the story just fine. Zuma is a weird name though, and it's also an XBLA game.

Calatia | November 18, 17:19 CET

Coulda been worse; Gwen could have called the kid "After the Gold Rush."

Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner | November 18, 18:08 CET

I was thinking beaches, in which case "Pismo" would've been a worse choice. But if it's Neil Young albums, I think she should've gone with "Ragged Glory."

jcs | November 18, 18:27 CET

Gwen Stefani named her child after a PC game? Definitely mockable.

[ edited by electricspacegirl on 2008-11-18 18:56 ]

electricspacegirl | November 18, 18:55 CET

Alyson is so cute! But after that, she better pick a name that is common.

Linnea1928 | November 18, 19:08 CET

In all fairness, Alyson isn't quoted as saying she wouldn't give her child an unusual name, only that she won't name it Zuma.

But even if she did say that, she still has the right to change her mind.

electricspacegirl | November 18, 19:15 CET

Willow has a nice ring to it.

Simon | November 18, 19:22 CET

But you wouldn't want to piss her off.

jcs | November 18, 19:26 CET

Zuma? Isn't that a game where you've got to stop coloured balls rolling into a stone frog's mouth?

I may name my first child Tetris. If I'm ever crazy enough to actually have kids... ;)

Highlander | November 18, 19:36 CET

Zuma?
Here we had a soap opera character (IIRC she hasd the streght of a panter). Dragon Ball has Bulma, but Zuma?
Well some people name their children from fruits...

Brasilian Chaos Man | November 18, 20:12 CET

Let's just hope that it wasn't named after politician/possible rapist Jacob Zuma.

Invisible Green | November 18, 20:15 CET

I find it quite interesting how our attitudes to certain names change. My first name is Hazel which is, of course, from the nutty shrub and became common in the 19th century. I wonder how weird it sounded back then.

One of my middle names is Alma which is another Victorian name which became popular because of a British/French victory near the river Alma during the Crimean War. That seems weird to me now.

moley75 | November 18, 20:26 CET

Zuma is also a beautiful beach here in Southern California. And actually, I don't think it's a strange name at all. Nothing beats Penn's Moxie Crimefighter name for his daughter... Or, you know, Moon Unit.

Kat Jetson | November 18, 20:46 CET

That Alyson sure speaks with a lot of exclamation points!!!

Dana5140 | November 18, 21:30 CET

I don't see how she was "mocking" anything with her statement. This just seems like another example of tabloid writing trying to stir things up.

ShanshuBugaboo | November 18, 22:14 CET

Maybe Penn's Moxie Crimefighter will marry Jason Lee's Pilot Inspektor.

I think there's a case to be made for unusual, as in uncommon, names, as opposed to made-up stuff. My name is Melanie, not a common name (to my consternation as a child), but it's an actual, you know, human name.

pillboxed | November 18, 22:30 CET

If it's a boy, "Joss Denisof" and if its a girl, "Denise Denisof."

alexreager | November 18, 22:39 CET

I forgot to mention "the name story"...I was named after my Grandfather, Grandpa Alexander Reager. I was born after he died and my mother named me Alexander Reager verbatim for my grandpa.

So my mother was chatting with her neighbor right after I was born and she said to the neighbor, "I named him verbatim for his grandfather..." The neighbor, a former flower-child, responded, "Verbatim Reager, far out!"

alexreager | November 18, 22:51 CET

"Verbatim"- I love it, and it would make a great name for a character in, say, a comic.

toast | November 18, 22:58 CET

Umm. Not quite sure how using your grandfather's name is "word for word." I mean, it's common to name a child after a relative, sometimes even using the same middle name.

Is there a surname involved, other than Reager?

Gotta wonder how George Foreman's kids feel, though. "Gee, Dad, you couldn't get creative just once?"

And...I wonder about that. TMK, "junior" and Roman numerals usually are given to the child, grandchild and so on. Hence Indiana was actually Henry Jones, Junior. And if he'd had a son he'd be Henry III. (Oh, wait - Mutt.) I've never heard of a father naming all his children the same thing, and those children being Junior, the third and etc. until George did it.

Older names seem to be making a comeback. Just look at "Charmed" - where else have you heard the name Prudence lately? Harrison is rather popular these days (My cousin, who is married to a III, named her first boy that.) "Charmed" and "Friends" both had a Phoebe, which is a bird. (Can't say I much care for the nickname "Pheebs," though.) 'course, one of these day some mother's gonna get cutesie and spell it Feebee. Which is fine until someone "accidentally" adds an R.

Chandler comes from the surname originating in the Middle Ages for a maker or seller of candles. Then of course you've got names like Hunter, Tanner and Trapper. (Though I've never seen a Fisher. Probably a good thing.)

Don Johnson named his most recent (That I'm aware of, any way) daughter Atherton Grace; they call her Grace. I know Atherton had some meaning to him, but that was many years ago and I misremember now. Possibly a grandparent's name? Maternal grandmother's maiden name, perhaps? Dunno.

'course, if they wanted original, they could combine their first names. Like...Alyxis. Aleson? That might be too confusing, though. Or they could go for a combo of their surnames. Then we'd get a kid named Dennigan. Or Hanisof. Which brings up...she kept Hannigan, yes? So does the baby get her name, his name, or a hyphen?

ShadowQuest | November 19, 00:31 CET

ShadowQuest: Umm, Fisher Stevens.

But interesting possibilities there.

DaddyCatALSO | November 19, 02:21 CET

The link no longer works, btw, so I can only guess as to what the main topic is about.

I have a relatively common name, but I think by the time I have kids, there will be generations of Rocklands and Madisons and Michaelas, and I'll be tempted to have my kid be the only Katie. Katie's not trendy anymore, is it? There was a time in which the name Katherine (or Kathryn) was a highly respected name, and evoked images of Hepburn. What do we see when we get Madisons and Michaelas? No offense to anyone named either or who named their child either. I'm just a little nostalgic for the non-trendy names, I guess.

the ninja report | November 19, 17:04 CET

Rockland? Really?

Just a reminder to everyone - Alexis is on Private Practice tonight at 9 on ABC. Which is, unfortunately, opposite Nick Brendon's appearance on Criminal Minds on CBS.

pillboxed | November 19, 17:11 CET