Ed Sheeran Names Daughter ‘Lyra Antarctica’. Thinking Out Loud, Why Do Celebs Fall In Love With Weird Baby Names?
I love Ed Sheeran, okay. I do. His songs make my insides real mushy, those lyrics hit hard. And his 2017 concert in Mumbai is still one of my favourite concerts of all time. When on Tuesday, he announced the birth of his daughter with wife Cherry Seaborn, I was smiling at their cute birth announcement! Everybody, welcome Lyra Antarctica Seaborn Sheeran!
https://www.instagram.com/p/CEliNEOBw3O/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
And then, it started. A very familiar tune began playing in my head, repeatedly. I had faint memories of hearing it roughly five months or so ago, at a theatre. Oh yes, there was Parineeti Chopra, blushing and scribbling the name of a leggings brand on her journal. And Taapsee Pannu was there too, changing her clothes as often as she breathes because she just wanted to wear every single pair of leggings in her closet. And then it hit me. Of course.
Ed Sheeran just named his daughter after an Indian leggings brand called Lyra.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bk4QPD7FuCn/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
No, it’s just not me who now smells popcorn and samosas in the air when I hear his Ed’s daughter’s name. Other Indians are equally amused with Lyra!
Lyra is that brand which sells leggings and has the most annoying ad in the world, used to play in theatres all the time, I miss theatres I even miss these Lyra ads sorry for dissing you Lyra https://t.co/UU7csA4yGL
— Shreemi Verma (@shreemiverma) September 1, 2020
https://twitter.com/keepingitrheal/status/1300723533224595456?s=20
https://twitter.com/fringe_city/status/1300733879502868480?s=20
https://twitter.com/twofallingwalls/status/1300736209086373902?s=20
Like I said, Lyra does seem like a beautiful name. In fact, someone was insightful enough to point out that the name is a reference to the heroine of Phillip Pullman’s fantasy book series, His Dark Materials, who is named Lyra Belacqua. The book is one of Ed Sheeran’s favourites.
https://twitter.com/edsheeran/status/609603327047921664?s=20
I'm sure he refers to
Lyra – Belacqua (his dark materials)
Antarctica – maybe nod to Iorek Byrnison.
I'm just guessing, hvnt had breakfast yet.— ᚷᚱᛁᛗᚾᛁᚱ #DestroyTheAadhaar (@CryoPerSea) September 2, 2020
Ed Sheeran has a kid named Lyra exactly 9 months after His Dark Materials premiered on BBC. We know what they were watching when she was conceived
— jack keaney (@jxckky) September 1, 2020
As someone who lives and breathes pop-culture references, I get the whole emotion behind the name. I mean the ‘Antarctica Seaborn’ bit makes the little girl sound like she’s straight out of the Iron Islands from Game of Thrones (on which Sheeran also cameo-ed) which, mind you, is still pretty badass. But with Lyra Antarctica Seaborn Sheeran, Ed Sheeran joins the list of celebrity parents who’ve come up with the most weird baby names for their kiddos. And it’s a legit obsession, alright! As if celeb kids aren’t going to be famous even before they’re born, let’s go ahead and name them something that sets them apart from the rest even more!
Take Elon Musk and Grimes’ name for their son, which pretty much launched a query that plagued the brightest minds of our time. It’s so complicated, I’m not even going to attempt to type it here. Just go ahead and read it off the Tesla chief’s tweet from May 2020!
X Æ A-12 Musk
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 5, 2020
Also Read: X Æ A-12 Is Elon Musk’s Name For His Baby And It Has Spawned Hilarious Memes
The funny thing was, when Grimes tried to explain how to spell the name, even she needed a correction! This pretty much tells you how this child’s life is going to go. He’s lucky he’s a celeb so people will care enough to get his name right. If he were a regular Joe, he’d probably be reduced to being called something as basic as, well, Joe. You know, just how Indian names like Jignesh get shortened to ‘Jigs’ in the States? Same.
SR-71, but yes
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 6, 2020
Ed Sheeran and Elon Musk are the most recent entrants to the ‘weird baby names’ club, and one of my top voted celeb parents in that list have always been Gwyneth Paltrow and former husband, Coldplay frontman Chris Martin, who named their daughter… wait for it… Apple. Now put her first name and last name together, and you get… Apple Martin. As in Apple Martini? Yeah, pour that girl one because she might be mocked for it every single time!
If you think I am being too harsh, Paltrow herself agrees! Check out what she said when Elon Musk revealed his son’s name!
https://www.instagram.com/p/B_74NVpl1w2/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
It is a fact universally acknowledged that christening your kid with a unique name is kind of the trend now. Gone are the days when names like ‘Sonia’, ‘Ananya’ or ‘Aryan’ were considered fancy. Now we’re even past the ‘Shanaya’ and ‘Aryamaan’ stages of the cycle, with names like ‘Sappho’ taking the lead, which is what Kalki Koechlin’s baby girl is named! The rarer the name, the higher the appeal and chatter around it. And remember when every second GoT fan wanted to name their son ‘Jon’ and daughter ‘Dany’?
The entire Kardashian-Jenner clan seems to have taken cues from this, because not one of their young brood has, what you’d call, a ‘normal’ name—North, Saint, Psalm, Chicago, Reign, True, Stormi, Dream!
https://www.instagram.com/p/B-iPbHIndC_/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
And of course, who can forget, Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s kids, named Blue Ivy, Rumi and, get this, ‘Sir’. No really. I suddenly think of curtains of ivy in some old Scottish castle, a beautiful poem, and an English butler in one breath, when I hear these names! And can you blame me? My favourite has to be Chris Hemsworth and Elsa Pataky’s daughter’s name, which is going to please a lot of deshbhakts and will probably earn Hemsworth’s Thor a temple of his own in our country. She’s named… India. Similarly, the late Steve Irwin’s daughter is named Bindi Irwin. Go figure.
Speaking of superheroes, did you know that Nicholas Cage’s son is named Kal-El, as in Superman’s real name? Bear Grylls started off with a regular name like Jesse for his kid, and then proceeded to name his second Marmaduke (yes, the famous Great Dane) and Huckleberry (Mark Twain like this!). Oh, and Cardi B and Offset’s daughter (Offset is again weird, but okay), born in July, is named Kulture Kiari Cephus. Were Ekta Kapoor and Karan Johar on the naming committee, I mean? How is ‘culture’ even a name? Dare I ask, what is this Kulture of naming kids using random words that either have no meaning, or have a meaning that makes them even more weird. I think we peaked with North West in that sense. Your daughter’s a direction! But every time a new celeb baby is born, they amaze me once again!
From Pilot Inspektor (Jason Lee and Beth Riesgraf), Rocket Zot (Sam Worthington, the actor from Avatar), to Sage Moonblood and Seargeoh (Slyvester Stallone’s kids) and Bronx Mowgli and Jagger Snow (singer Ashlee Simpson’s kids), the West seems to be mighty obsessed with naming their kids in the most ridiculous fashion! I wonder if these kids grow up to detest their parents for it, or revel in it because it is an added layer of intrigue to their existing popularity. I mean, “Look there goes Bronx Mowgli” or “Spotted: Lyra Antarctica going for her swimming lesson” does grab attention, doesn’t it?
Anyway, to each their own, right? My name, for starters, is super basic and instantly tells you I am a Gujarati girl. Maybe if I were named something like Princess Consuela Banana Hammock or Crap-Bag, I’d be more appealing! But I’m still saying, celebs be like, “When I’m with my baby yeah, all the good names disappear!”
