If you’re a namenik, it’s old news that Nicole Richie and Joel Madden named their new little one Harlow Winter Kate.

But over here on the Appellation Mountains, we’re doing some thinking about this unusual moniker and what it has in common with the red hot, Top 10 baby name Ava.

Back in 1999, when Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Phillipe christened their little starbaby Ava Elizabeth, the name was the 259th most common name given to girls born that year. Not as rare as Hortense or Phyllidia, but a far cry from Emily – the name given to a whopping 26,528 new people that year.

Fast forward to 2006, however, and Ava has jumped to #5, a position it appears to have held steady in 2007.* She’s not Emily, but she might be her little sister.Ava has never been as popular as it is today – in fact, for much of the 1980s, it wasn’t even in the Top 1000. But thanks to Oscar-nominated screen siren Ava Gardner, the name has always been familiar, if not in frequent use.

Ava conjures an old Hollywood glamour – think white fox fur shrugs and mirrored dressers. It’s a throwback name like the chart-topping Hannah, but while Hannah’s vibe is more Little House on the Prairie, Ava is all about the glitz.

If you’re an old film buff, you’ve probably already made the connection. Ava Gardner would have been gracing the silver screen in the same era that Jean Harlow‘s name regularly appeared in lights. And so I submit that Harlow, while a bit more extreme than Ava, is actually just a logical progression of a trend.

Other Hollywood & Vine-esque names are in the midst of a revival, too – think Audrey (#68 in ’06, up from #175 fifteen years earlier), Stella (as in Adler – somewhat obscure, I grant you, but similarly flavored and rising from #906 in 1998 to a fairly common #241 in 2006), and even Tallulah, as in Bankhead, which has yet to crack the Top 1000, but is certainly a known name thanks to starbaby Tallulah Belle, and more recently, Patrick Dempsey’s daughter Tallulah Fyfe.

Let’s not forget perennial favorites Lauren (as in Bacall) and Katharine (as in Hepburn.)

Adding to Harlow‘s appeal is the continued popularity of surname names – ranging from Madison and Parker to Presley and Jackson.

Harlow also boasts the big O – the vowel that is all the rage, for cool baby names like Olivia, Owen and Theo.Whether or not this means that Harlow will become a favorite choice for us mere mortals, well, that’s hard to say. But I predict that we’ll see this one crack the Top 1000 by 2010 – if not sooner.

* Note: Throughout the site, statistics for all years are based on the United States Social Security data, available online at www.ssa.gov/OACT/babynames.