If there's one thing we don't do in life, it's choose our own names. Sure, we can change them, but generally we don't. Luckily, most of our parents go with names that aren't going to cause us too much heartache, but sometimes those common names can be, well, common. For some reason, celebrities often feel the need to name their babies something totally out of the ordinary... maybe as a not-so-subtle reminder that their child is not average at all but of celebrity blood (whatever that means). Here are 13 of the most unique celeb baby names out there and some explanations, too.
13 Rocket Ayer
Pharrell Williams and his wife went with a pretty unique name for their son. As he explained once, "We named him after a man-made machine that was meant to go up." He continued to explain that he was influenced by songs by the greats: Rocket Love by Stevie Wonder, Rocket by Herbie Hancock, and Rocket Man by Elton John. His son's middle name is "Ayer" after Roy Ayers... which kind of sounds like "air." Pretty cool name.
12 Poppy Honey, Daisy Boo, And Petal Blossom Rainbow
Flower fairy nymph creatures from the fields? Care Bears? No, those are just the names that celeb chef Jamie Oliver and his wife Jools chose for their daughters. Clearly the theme is floral, with a little bit of hippie madness mixed into the last one. But hey, what little girl isn't a fan of flowers and girly stuff? The kids are probably stoked (plus they're adorable, judging from Jamie and Jools' Instagram posts). We do have to wonder though why there isn't a food element mixed in to pay homage to their famous dad.
11 Bluebell Madonna
More flowers! Former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell may have hung up her stacked platform shoes and other glorious 90s paraphernalia, but she's not exactly your average woman. Geri and her ex, screenwriter Sacha Gervasi, decided to name their daughter Bluebell Madonna. The two are sometimes spotted out and about in matching outfits, and when the former Ginger Spice married Christian Horner in 2015, Bluebell was right there by her side. Bluebell could be shortened to Blue, which is actually a fairly common name in the world of celebrity children. Yes, really.
10 Seven Sirius, Puma Sabti, And Mars Merkaba
Andre Benjamin and Erykah Badu named their first son Seven Sirius, and their next two children were Puma Sabti and Mars Merkaba. Not surprisingly, Seven has been known to have some musical chops like his parents. Back in 2008 Erykah said she and her son enjoy playing electric guitars together. Apparently Seven is quite the talent: he can sing, play piano, and upright bass.
9 Kyd
Maybe David Duchovny and Tea Leoni thought it would be a good idea to not actually name their kid... so they went with just "Kyd." In a wild west sort of way, it's a super cool name. Hopefully the kid doesn't feel too smothered or babied otherwise he might really start to resent the constant reminder that, yeah, he's someone's kid. Could be worse though, could be much worse. David and Tea had a bit of a rocky split, but Tea has said that her kids are "the two greatest gifts on the planet."
8 Satchel
Satchel is definitely a unique choice. It's a bag you carry things in, which is sort a strange source of baby name inspo, and you can't exactly shorten it. What would you go by, Sat? Well, Spike Lee and Tonya Lewis Lee thought it was an amazing choice for their daughter who seems to be okay as she's currently enrolled in college. They also have a son named Jackson and Spike is known to be a super dedicated dad.
7 Moxie CrimeFighter
Maybe if you name your kid after a superhero they might grow up to be one. Illusionist Penn Jillette and Emily Zolten went there. Penn has explained, "I think it’s pretty cruel to give a kid a name that others are going to have.... I always felt sorry for the Mikes and Bobs. There’s just so many, how do you know when they’re talking to you?" He went on to say that Moxie is a "purely American word" and that it stands for "spunk and energy."
6 Pilot Inspektor
Jason Lee was actually a professional skateboarder before he became a successful actor. His first marriage supposedly didn't work out because of his strong ties to Scientology, but his fiance Beth Riesgraf gave birth to his son, whom they named Pilot Inspektor. The name was supposedly inspired by a song called "He's Simple, He's Dumb, He's the Pilot" by the rock band Grandaddy. The couple didn't make it. In 2008, Jason married model/actress Ceren Alkac and they had two kids, Casper and Sonny.
5 Kal-El
If the name Kal-El sounds familiar to you, that's because it's also Superman's first name. Nicholas Cage and his wife Alice Kim borrowed the name, making their son's full name Kal-El Coppola Cage. He has explained, "I just thought it was a beautiful name and it had kind of a magical ring to it." Fair enough.
4 Jermajesty
This name sure makes a statement. There's no doubt it's regal but it also starts with the sound of "germ" so that's a little complicated. Jermaine Jackson and Alejandra Genevieve Oaziaza chose this name for their now teenage son. It's sort of meant to be a royal off-shoot from Jermaine's name. Jermaine also has siblings named Jaafar, Jermaine Jr, Jaimy, Jeremy, Donte, and Autumn.
3 Moon Unit, Dweezil, And Diva Thin Muffin Pigeen
Frank Zappa certainly didn't feel the need to keep things average when he named his children, to say the least. Diva Thin Muffin Pigeen is perhaps the strangest name of the bunch, but shortened to Diva Zappa, it's actually quite cute. According to her dad, she was named Diva "because of the loud quality of her voice. She's audible at 300 yards." Supposedly Moon got her name because when she was born Frank offered up the options of either Moon or Motörhead, and mom Gail made the obvious choice. The "Unit" addition was chosen based on how her birth made the family a unit. Aww.
2 Apple
Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin famously named their daughter Apple, and the name didn't exactly come out of thin air. The story goes that Chris' North American Booking Agent named her kid Apple, and the two thought that would suit their kid just fine as well. They made sure to get permission before stealing the name, which they were granted (of course). Her middle names Blythe and Alison are after Gwen and Chris' moms.
1 North West
If you ask Kim Kardashian, she and Kanye didn't set out to name their first daughter North, but after a rumor circulated, they stuck with it. They were at lunch when Pharrell Williams walked over to their table and said it was a great name, which made them realize that hey, if people were talking about it, give the people what they want.
sources: blogs.babycenter.com, celebritybabies.people.com, content.time.com, quora.com,people.com, usmagazine.com
