Weird Baby Names: Jamie Oliver’s Son Buddy Bear Maurice

Chef Jamie Oliver’s newborn Buddy Bear Maurice has siblings named Poppy Honey Rosie, Daisy Boo Pamela, and Petal Blossom Rainbow. Linda Rosenkrantz rounds up famous families’ crazy name choices.

On Wednesday, celebrity chef Jamie Oliver announced the birth of his son, Buddy Bear Maurice—brother to Poppy Honey Rosie, Daisy Boo Pamela and Petal Blossom Rainbow. Perhaps Buddy Bear Maurice is not so strange in Hollywood. Just recently, Ever Carradine, actress and member of a multi-generational Hollywood dynasty, gave her baby daughter an equally out-of-the-box-name: Chaplin Haddow. It got me wondering: could there be an extreme-baby-naming (EBN) gene that passes from generation to generation?

In Ever’s case, it seems to be true. Although her Carradine parent’s generation bore the classic names David, Christopher, Keith and Robert, among their offspring are:

CADE CALISTA FREE (who changed his name to TOM) KANSAS MARICA SOREL

• Celebrity Mini Me’sFrank Zappa’s kids’ names are the poster children for EBN: Moon Unit, Dweezil (though his birth certificate says Ian Donald Calvin Euclid, as the hospital refused to register Dweezil), Ahmet Emuukha Rodan and Diva Thin Muffin Pigeen. Did these siblings follow the tradition? Judging from the Zappa grandchildren, kinda:

CEYLON INDIRA MATILDA PLUM ZOLA FRANK

Equally well known are the Phoenix (originally Bottom) family of nature names: River Jude, Summer Joy, Rain Joan of Arc, Liberty (born Libertad Mariposa), and the brother first called Joaquin then Leaf and then Joaquin again. Among their third generation are:

ATTICUS INDIANA AUGUST (Indiana in tribute to uncle River, who played the young Indiana Jones) INDIGO ORION JONAS RIO EVEREST SCARLETTE JASMINE

The widespread progeny of the Mamas and the Papas’ John and Michelle Phillips (together and separately) include children and grandchildren:

ARON BIJOU CHYNNA JAMISON LEON TAMERLANE VANCE ALEXANDER

And then there’s the Coppola clan, which includes Nicolas Cage (nee Coppola), and their creative choices:

CAYLEY COSIMA DEXTER AUGUSTUS GIAN-CARLA KAL-EL NATASHA ROMY MARS WESTON

The four acting Baldwin brothers have pretty normal names, but not so for some of their offspring:

ALAIA ATTICUS AVIS FINLEY RAE MARTINEAU IRELAND JAMISON LEON KAHLEA VANCE ALEXANDER

Legendary reggae musician Robert Nesta (Bob) Marley had a convoluted family tree, with eleven children, including Cedella (named for Marley’s mother), David (‘Ziggy’), Rohan and Ki-Mani. Among his interestingly-named grandchildren are:

DONISHA JOSHUA OMARU JUDAH VICTORIA JUSTICE MYSTIC SELAH LOUISE SHACIA YOHAN ZION DAVID ZIPPORAH ZURI

The fairly normally named Wayans brood seems to have a penchant for vowel-ending names for their own kids:

AMAI BELLA CHAUNTÉ ILLIA JOLIE IVORY IMANI KYLA NALA

And last but certainly not least, the Jackson family configuration is almost too daunting to look at. For one thing, Michael and Janet’s genertaion is a lot more elaborate than it would appear. “Jackie,” for example, was christened Sigmund Esco, Jr., and “Tito” is Toriano Adaryll, while Jermaine’s middle name is La Jaune. The baroque (and sometimes immodest) name gene is evident in some of their own child (and grandchild) choices:

JAAFAR JAIMY JERMAJESTY ROYALTY STEVEANNA VALENCIA YASHI

Linda Rosenkrantz is a co-developer of the baby-naming site nameberry.com and co-author of 10 books on names, including Beyond Ava & Aiden.