It’s a truth universally acknowledged that a second born child will begin their lives clothed in worn onesies, play with drool-y old toys and be read books missing a lot of pages.
Fancy firsties, on the other hand, usually experience a more sparkly start to life with a colour co-ordinated nursery, matching socks and personalised cot sheets.
But if you’re the offspring of Eva Mendes and Ryan Gosling, well your going to have to share names as well. First-born Esmeralda Amada Gosling is now big sissie to Amada Lee Gosling in one of the best-kept pregnancies of the century.
It’s an armada of Amadas
The name Amada comes from Eva’s grandmother and it means ‘beloved’ which is lovely. And it’s almost heartening to know that this glamorous couple suffered from the all-to common syndrome of using up a favourite name in a middle name.
It’s a classic case of throwing everything at the firstborn. And apparently they feel they’re above the commoner’s fear of repeating names.
I like to imagine the conversation went a little something like this:
Eva: “Oh Ryan, put on a shirt for a minute, would you? I need to have a serious conversation. We need to LOCK down our baby girl’s name. And before your say anything, Rachel and Sandra are definitely off the list.”
Ryan (probably massaging Eva’s delicately swollen feet): “Eva, if our girls are anything like you, then it won’t matter what they’re called, because they’ll be perfection incarnate.”
Eva: “That’s settled then, we’ll call them the SAME NAME. Amada. Done! Now take the shirt back off.”
We’re betting that if the couple have a boy next, it’s going to be called George … after Ryan’s much-loved mutt.
Celeb baby names: The rules do not apply
So obviously celebrities think they’re above the UNSPOKEN laws of children naming. They’re happy to reuse names between siblings, they’re happy to apply words like Apple and Moon to their birth certificates… And, worst of all, they don’t respect the laws of NAME STEALING.
You know the scenario: you’ve just had a kid, you thought long and hard about the name and finally settled on something you felt was original yet workable. You spent sleepless nights making lists and lists of lists, and suddenly you find the right name.
THEN you hear your best friend has popped out a poppet and have STOLEN THE SAME NAME. Let’s investigate further.
Round 1: Saint
Fall Out Boy Pete Wentz and girlfriend Meagan Camper had baby Saint in August 2014 and just a little more than a year later Kanye West and Kim introduced their boy Saint to the world. Apparently Pete’s now worried his son will be known as “the OTHER Saint”.
Baby Saint West – you win this round.
So we’re awarding this one to Kanye – because he’s more likely to lash out on Twitter.
Round two: Sasha
Naomi Watts and Liev Schreiber’s son goes by Sasha, a Russian take on his first name Alexander, and in a strange coincidence their younger celebrity look-alike friends Chris Hemsworth and partner Elsa Pataky also have a son called Sasha. So much samieness, even the Aussie connection.
Chris Hemsworth and wife Elsa Pataky
It’s a draw.
Round 3: Wyatt
This is a interesting three-way tussle between Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher who gave their daughter this tough-guy name in 2014; while forever-couple Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell named their son Wyatt waaay back in 1986. AND Sheryl Crow gave the name to her little guy in 2007.
Kurt and Goldie get props for being so ahead of their time on the baby-naming front.
I think this one goes to the ever-bright Goldie and Kurt. And we’re a bit disappointed Mila and Ashton didn’t combine names and come up with ‘Mash’, but there’s always next time.