By Pamela Redmond Satran and Linda Rosenkrantz
What’s all this fuss about Harper Seven? The newest Beckham baby’s name is not only much more down-to-earth than her brothers’ names (Brooklyn, Romeo, and Cruz)–nearly 3000 non-celebrity baby girls were given the name Harper last year–but it’s already been used for the children of other stars, from Tiffani Thiessen to Lisa Marie Presley.
And Seven? Didn’t we see that on Seinfeld, like, 15 years ago?
The whole Harper hubbub is diverting attention from the bumper crop of truly outrageous celebrity baby names we’ve seen in 2011. Rather than retreating to more traditional baby name territory, stars seem to be setting the crazy bar ever higher.
Already this year we’ve had a Morocco and a Moroccan, a couple of animals and a pair of exotic flowers, several invented spellings, the name of a combustion engine, and the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet.
To counteract the scorn heaped upon some of these names, their bestowers rush to their defense, sometimes offering elaborate explanations and insights into the inspirations behind them, from great-grandparents to home décor to, yep, other celebrities.
Here, our picks for the wildest celebrity baby names of 2011– so far, with suspected crazy baby-namers Keri Russell, Lily Allen, Tori Spelling, Jenna Fischer, and January Jones due in the coming months.