The most anticipated celeb birth of the summer happened last night in France. Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt welcomed a son and a daughter – Knox Leon and Vivienne Marcheline. Word is that mom and babies are doing well.
We must say, the Jolie-Pitts are officially post-style in terms of baby naming. Their children’s names range all over the map and the historical record, and the only common thread is that every choice is almost completely unexpected. Their daughters now wear names that are exotic and hyper-feminine (Zahara Marley), androgynous and Biblical (Shiloh Novel) and French-fried classic (Vivienne Marcheline).
As for the boys? They do share something interesting – the first names of sons Maddox Chivan, Pax Thien and Knox Leon all end in x.
Popularity-wise, Knox has not appeared in the Top 1000 in the US in the 20th century, though it appeared briefly in 1881 and 1888. His sister’s moniker is actually fairly common. Vivienne regularly appeared in the Top 1000 throughout the 1910s and 1920s. Her more familiar English counterpart, Vivian, has been in the Top 1000 every year the US has collected data, and spent 1911 to 1934 in the Top 100. Today she ranks #210.
No word yet on the parents’ inspiration for the names, save that Marcheline is in honor of Angelina’s late mother, Marcheline Bertrand.
Congratulations to the new family!
I actually like Shiloh out of all of their kids names. The others don’t really appeal to me. Shiloh is mentioned over 130 times in the Bible, so it’s a strong Biblical name with incredible historical significance to me.I like it’s soft sound & delicate sounds. Another name that might have this is Alexandria.
I think it’s really silly how people always say Shiloh is a dogs name or refer to some silly movie that was made over 15 years ago & that wasn’t exactly ET. I honestly the next generation of people who are having kids within the next 10 years are even going to know about that movie.I mean, how many shows, actresses, movies etc of your parents childhood or youth do you know about? Names like Jack ,Cooper, Max are in the top 100 in many countries are often listed in the 100 most common dog names. Sorry for the rant, this isjust one of my pet peeves about names. I just find it an incredible shallow argument.
Knox isn’t really my cup of tea, though I know it’s a family name of their side. It sounds a bit to close to ‘knocks’ for me. Leon I don’t like and never have. It took me months o be able to like Leo, which I find fresher. Leon/Leroy and those names fall on the unattractive list to me. I’ve tried to like Vivienne/VIvian – much prefer Vivienne as I think of the masculine usage of the name when I see Vivian but, I don’t. Marcheline is interesting. Oh, and her kids are all from different countries and races – she chose names to honour their heritage.Just because something isn’t normal to you & doesn’t sound like Bob, Mary-Sue & Eleanor doesn’t mean that it’s wrong. All of the names she chose have a history & mean something to them. Also, what is normal & sounds acceptable is relative to the person
I like Vivienne, but I hate the -enne spelling. I like Vivian alot better; It’s shorter and simpler. I admit I do like it alot better than Shiloh though. Shiloh will always be a dog’s name or a Civil War battle name to me. LOL @ youcantcallitit & coolteamblt. Ajax? It sounds like a brand of cleaning products. lmao
i know that name of rex maybe not really huge of fan but i think rex can change to the Riggs and i think that will be cool name in the world!
smile and have a great day everybody
take care
Felix is a favorite of mine for sure. Ajax is a guilty pleasure name of mine, too. Not a huge fan of Rex, though. It’s a dog name to me.
Lola, I love Felix, Ajax, and Rex! Those are some good names.
Gotta pipe up again! Say the Jolie Pitt boys names out loud, like you’re calling them for supper: Maddox, Pax and Knox! Doesnt it sound like maddox packs an ox.. to anyone else? Why don’t people practice calling a name out loud? *sigh* Felix, Ajax or Rex would have been my contribution here. All three work better with Maddox & Pax than Knox does.
I’ll bet you it has more to do with Brad being around. Angelina started out with an iffy family life, and started her own, you know? As she’s settling into a family with Brad, he’s beginning to exert more influence and he seems to place more importance on family names. That’s my vote on that.
I don’t mind Knox on it’s own, but it’s clunky with all those X brothers.
It does seem like they’d trip over their sons’ names if they said them in a string “Maddox, Pax, Knox, time for dinner!”
While it’s very much *not* my style, there are plenty of boy names out there that share that cowboy feel – Colt, Slade, Stone. I find Knox tolerable when compared to other lil’ wrangler monikers.
What strikes me as strangest about these names is that, after four kids, they’ve begun mining family history. It seems like most couples often go the opposite direction – using up the mother’s maiden name first or honoring Grandpa Charlie, then getting more adventurous and independent with later children.
I love Vivienne, but I hate Knox. It’s way too close to Pax and Maddox. It’s too themey to me.