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A girl called Ford and a boy called Ever: The big trends from 2020's celebrity baby names.

Elon Musk and Grimes’ baby X Æ A-12. Cameron Diaz and Joel Madden’s baby Raddix. Iggy Azalea and Playboi Carti’s baby Onyx. Three of the biggest celebrity birth announcements of 2020 have something in common.

It’s not just the X's (although that definitely is a trend in itself). It’s not just the distinctive quality of the names. It’s the fact that people can’t make assumptions from X Æ A-12, Raddix or Onyx about the gender of the child. 

Side note: Here are the worst baby names Reddit has ever heard. Post continues below.


Video via Mamamia

In the case of Elon Musk and Grimes, at least, that’s exactly what they intended. It’s all part of their gender-neutral parenting approach.

“I don’t want to gender them in case that’s not how they feel in their life,” Canadian musician Grimes said before the baby was born.

There are more. Lots more. Milla Jovovich and Paul W. S. Anderson called their third daughter Osian. She’s a sister for Ever and Dashiel.    

“Osian is a Welsh boy’s name and it’s pronounced O-shin,” Jovovich explained on Instagram. 

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Meanwhile, River, which is one of the top 20 “gender-fluid” names for babies, continues to be big with celebs in 2020. It nails the environmental trend and the gender-neutral one at the same time. 

Rooney Mara and Joaquin Phoenix called their son River (no doubt in memory of Joaquin’s brother), while former MAFS star Jono Pitman and his partner Rebecca Pattison called their daughter River.

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More? There’s former Glee star Lea Michele and Zandy Reich’s son Ever, and singer Ciara and Russell Wilson’s son Win. 

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Go further down the list of celebs who had babies in 2020 and things stay interesting. Meghan Markle’s ex Trevor Engleson and Tracey Kurland had a girl called Ford. Comedian Kel Mitchell and Asia Lee had a boy called Honor - a brother for Allure, Lyric and Wisdom. 

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Model Lucky Blue Smith and Nara Pellman had a girl called Rumble, a sister for Gravity.

Okay, so maybe Rumble is just part of that age-old tradition of celebrities giving their kids wacky names. But there’s definitely something going on here.

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Without a doubt, celebs are leading the way when it comes to gender-neutral names. Our world is becoming more gender-fluid, so why shouldn’t names reflect that? Just as not every person fits into the “male” or “female” category, nor should every name have to. 

Listen to Mamamia's daily news podcast, The Quicky, on what it's like raising your child gender neutral. Post continues below.

Another nice trend in celebrity baby naming in 2020 is celebs giving their kids names that reflect their cultural heritage. 

There’s so much more diversity in naming than there used to be – less than 10 per cent of babies born nowadays will be given a top 10 choice – so when classrooms are full of kids with “unique” names (hi, Rumble), parents don’t have to worry so much about their kid’s name fitting in.  

Footballer Moana Hope and model Isabella Carlstrom called their daughter Svea, after “the mother of Sweden… a Viking warrior”. 

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Turia Pitt and Michael Hoskin, already parents to Hakavai, whose name means “dance of the water” in Tahitian, called their second son Rahiti, said to mean “rising sun”.

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Meanwhile, Chloë Sevigny and Siniša Mačković went for the Croatian name Vanja for their baby boy.  

Feature Image: Instagram.

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