It’s been more than a month since Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds welcomed their daughter and we still haven’t had a confirmation on the baby’s name. Ryan had every opportunity to reveal the name while he was doing the promotional rounds last week, but he played games and stoked the gossip fires. Well, now E! News has a lead or a source or something. E! says Blake and Ryan have named their baby girl…
JAMES.
James Lively Reynolds.
Or maybe just James Reynolds.
Or maybe James [Middle Name] Reynolds.
Here’s the thing… I actually like boy names for girls. Truly. My name is boy-ish in India, although it’s been “feminized” by a few generations. I love when girls are named Charlie or Chris. But most of the time, those are nicknames and the formal names are Charlotte or Christina. It’s quite another thing to give your daughter the first name of “James.” But now we know why Ryan rejected all of David Letterman’s name guesses. Letterman was only suggesting girl names. I have no doubt that James is a “family name” and of course it’s a Biblical name too. So there you go. James Reynolds is happening.
PS… I can already hear the references to Jaime King, who went by James King for a while when she modeled. But her real name was always Jaime King. James was a nickname and work-around for her as a model.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
I always loved the name James King, so I’m all for it.
Do you mean Jaime? Jaime seems cool to me.
As for James for a girl…..HAHHAAHAHA. Why not go all the way and call her Andrew?
True Story: My daughters has some classmates who are named “Heinrike” and “Johanine” [their partents really hoped for an actual “Heinrich” and a “Johannes” back in the day]. It is a german class and germany is NOT well known for their fancy names …
… on the other hand: One of the worst names for a girl (i met at my sons kindergarten) was a “Tronja Fortuna” + plain “Schmidt” or “Schmitz” [given “Tronja” was a mix of their parents surnames and “Fortuna” .. well it was a difficult birth and the baby nearly did’nt make it] But the father told me – full of pride- that his daughter would never has to share HER name by anyone! Ever!
“James” is ok. Really.
She went by James King when she started acting, too–in Happy Campers, Blow, Pearl Harbor, and Slackers. Then she started using Jaime.
Jameson would have been nice for a girl.
Jameson on the rocks is nice for a weekend too.
I remember thinking how cool that name was when I first saw her as a teen… Flash forward many years and I gave my daughter a “boy” name. It so suits her 😄
In a world where celebs give their children such ridiculous names, the idea of naming your daughter James doesn’t even ping the crazy radar
It might cause probably cause problems later in life though when people are going to assume she’s male. There are lot of camps/activities etc. that use gender based groupings for children and teens for obvious reasons.
They’ll probably just put (Miss) in front of it. I have a male coworker named Darlyn and he puts (Mr.) -just like that in parenthesis- before and after all emails or contracts. It’s a very simple step.
That said, I don’t like the name James for a girl. Seems different for the sake of being different…but at least they didn’t get weird with the spelling if it’s true.
I like them as a couple and happy for them with the birth…., but so don’t care what they name their chillin.
LOL @ chillin.
OMG It’s just Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively.
Nobody cares.
I care, very much. I named my Philodendron after Lively.
Oh god. Trying not to laugh at work.
(shhh I stole that from another poster 😜)
amazing
Yeah. I still don;t know who he is and how he got that sexiest man title.
A lot of voters are really into ferrets.
That is just way too masculine for a little girl.
+ 1
Totally agree!
I agree but Blake’s name is pretty masculine as well (I have only known her name for men). I really thought Blake would have named her daughter Savannah or Belle, after the plantation she got married on. Or maybe even Vanilla Ice Cream Cake Cone with Red and Blue Sprinkles Lively Reynolds.
LOL!
That could be one of the reasons why they might have named her James. Blake is masculine, James is masculine, sort of carrying on a tradition maybe?
What about Jamie Lee Curtis?
James/Jamie is cute enough, but I preferred Iris in the name guessing pool.
Jamie is not the same as James.
Jamie is a diminutive of James that has become a name in its own right over the years. If it’s cool to call a girl Jamie then why not James?
Since when is James a unisex name? is it a boyish one. If they liked the name Jamie (I like that one too), why didn’t they simply name her Jamie?
Cameron is a unisex name, Morgan, Riley….not James…
Waiting for them to have a boy and name him Lisa…!
Also, some websites report they posed nude with the baby for Allure…hope it is bs…… the source is Us Weekly though, so not the most reliable….
I like it. I knew a girl named Michael, she was named after an actress from the 50s, and it suited her. Considering my kids go to school with everyone named almost exclusively Madison, Broody, Aiden/ayden/Aden/Jayden/Hayden/Camden, eva, Ava, and Brooklyn its a nice change. There are other names but those seem to be so prevalent.
Lol at the “Aiden/ayden/Aden/Jayden/Hayden/Camden, eva, Ava, and Brooklyn”
A high school friend of mine named her daughters Ryan and Kyle.
Most “unisex” names are only unisex because a bunch of people named their daughters those names. Ashley, Leslie, Shannon, Courtney, Jamie, Lynn, Morgan, Riley, Taylor, et al, were all masculine names that were made feminine/unisex just by virtue of a bunch of people using them on girls.
That said, my name is Jaime, and as a kid/teen I hated it. I hate the way it is spelled, because it’s constantly mispronunced. I hate that people think I’m a dude. I would have liked to be Jamie just fine, but Jaime or James? No thanks.
I know 3 female Jamie’s (one of them is a Jaime, which I love because when she’s feeling sassy, she signs her name j’aime), and one male Jaime. Its a very lovely girls name : )
One of those unisex names is my actual name, and my parents would have named me with it regardless of whether I was born male or female. I’m thinking Reynolds and Lively were probably going to do the same with the name James, name their child that regardless of the sex.
The one I can’t wrap my mind around is Sydney. My dad had a few buddies named Sydney and now when I see a little girl with that name it conjures up the cigar smoking friends of my dad.
Also, Peyton, Jordan, .Schuyler. I could go on.
Prefer that over Violet.
Exactly… anything is better than the rampant abuse (and Mix) of:
Ava
Grace
Mia
Sophia/e
Olive/Olivia
Violet
@QQ –
OMG The name Ava is totally played out.
No offence meant to any Avas out there!
I really really wanted to name my nearly 10 yo daughter Ava. But her father hated it so we named her Natalie Marie. I am SO glad we didn’t use Ava because practically every family at her school has one
You’re forgetting Charlotte, Emily, and Emma. There are at least two of each in my 10-year-old daughter’s grade. Lovely name, but I do wonder sometimes why people can’t be a LITTLE more original with their baby names. That being said, James sounds very masculine to me.
James can get together with Wyatt Kuchner and bitch about their parents.
SO many girls named Ava, Eva, Evie, Aviel. I swear 1 in 10 have some version of that.
I have also met a little girl named James, thought her parents were totally stupid to name her that. Like, do you want her to think you wanted a boy (which in this case they did)?
I forget Blake’s name is masculine though, so that is a small qualification in her favor.
Omg you’re right which makes it even cuter. Twinsies!! Lol
It’s a straight up boys name! I love androgynous names, this is just not one of them. STOP TRYING TO MAKE JAMES HAPPEN. Its not going to happen.
LOL. So not fetch.
Hahah! Love the Mean Girls reference.
But yes, I agree. James is a BOYS name. It’s an annoying trend to usurp Boys’ names when the reverse RARELY happens!
C’mon, when is the last time you’ve heard of a boy named AnnaBeth or Jessica??
Around here, Jaime is a boy’s name.
I like masculine names for girls, too, and James is cute. And I agree with Snazzy, at least it’s an actual name. For a person, you know?
Helen Hunt’s character on Mad About You was named James (with the nickname of Jamie), that was more than 20 years ago! and I’ve always liked it.
I always liked that too! 🙂 Now I’m missing that show, and I haven’t thought about it in years.
Oh man I miss that show too. SUCH a good show…
Why not just name the character Jamie then? I’ll never understand short names with longer nicknames.
My neighbors have a little boy named Jamie, for years I thought that’s what his name was. Apparently his real name is James. I don’t get it either.
Oh my gosh I totally forgot about that! Damn I used to love that show – why isn’t it on Netflix?!
Terrible name for a little girl
Agreed!
These two set my teeth on edge. Are they assuming we are all waiting with bated breath for the name of their kid? They are just so private, right up until they announce it to People magazine…Grrrrr….Sorry I am in a foul mood 🙁
…or so private that they reportedly posed naked with the baby for Allure!
Oh god no. GRRRRRR…@#$#@^&$!!!!
@Cindy
Well, the source is US Weekly, so….
“Are they assuming we are all waiting with bated breath for the name of their kid?”
Of course they are :).
Do you really believe this story?
I actually really like it if true. But, I always was a bit of a tomboy with this girly name. I wished my name was Sam/Samantha. If James is girly she can go by nickname Jamie. Otherwise, James is cool.
I don’t live in an English-speaking country, so correct me if I’m wrong.. Both Blake and Ryan are unisex names, right? Kinda cool that they went with a unisex name for the kid too. I would have preferred Jaimie.
Ryan is traditionally a boy’s name — but it’s starting to show up among little girls in the last 10 or 15 years. Blake is also traditionally a boy’s name, but has become a unisex name in the last couple of generations.
Ok, thanks for clarifying!
James is not a unisex name (yet). Jamie is.
Precious and pretentious. I hope that’s not her name for those reasons.
I love James for a girl! We were so close to making our daughter James but then ended up using it as her middle name. But we frequently call her by her full name.
Interestingly enough, I also love ‘Blake’ for a girl and my daughters name was almost Blake James.
I like it. James was actually on my name list for my son, but when he was born he didn’t look like a James.
James Reynolds sounds nice together too, though it reminds me of Abe Carver from Days of our Lives.
I hate the name. Flat out hate. Before anyone jumps on me about it, it’s my name too!!! I’ve never liked it, never will. It doesn’t suit me. I was named after both my mother and father. James was my father, thus it became my first name. Not a fan.
James, you get 10 votes in this discussion!
In movies the male chauffeur is always named James. Drive on, James.
Love it, but one of my daughters’ middle names is James, so I’m partial. I love conventionally masculine names on girls. Like Elliot on Scrubs.
My youngest daughters middle name is James 😀 her nane was almost Blake James but we switched it last minute. I loved Elliot for a girl too!
There is a popular niche lifestyle blogger named James (Bleubird Vintage) and she sold the name for me. I love it!
Her real name is actually Aimee, though.
I don’t like it, but I’m pretty sure they don’t care whether I like it.
Well, she’s Blake. That’s a guy’s name. So she probably gravitates towards names like that. James was always one of my favorite names for boys/men. I wouldn’t want to be called James, but then again, I wouldn’t want to be called Blake or Daryl, like Daryl Hannah. I never thought about Daryl Hannah’s name because it sounded pretty together. One day when I really thought about and that people call her Daryl, it was just odd. I like certain non-feminine names but others on girls not so much.
How is Kaiser boyish in India? Just curious. I’m half-Indian, and I would think Kaiser is considered very American and gender neutral.
I think Kaiser is her nom de plume, not her real name…
It’s not what I would expect from Blake, honestly. I thought she’s pick something very feminine and perhaps old school.
Do you know Blake well??
I don’t think the name is James. But I watched him on Letterman- this guy really is just playing games. However, when he said he would use his wife as a human shield to protect this baby, I thought he is nuts.
I would suspect he was just joking!! He got married to Scarlett, no one knew & 2 this day Not one photo of the wedding has surfaced, he married Blake, again no photos of them as a couple have been shown. I do not think he is playing when it comes to what he wants to reveal about his private life. There are a lot of things we as the public are NOT entitled to know. When they make public appearances it does not come w/ access to their private lives. Reality TV has made the public demand to know everything a right.
Sure why not? I wouldn’t choose it but if they like it more power to em. Plenty of dudes have feminine names. John Wayne’s real name was Marion. My hubby’s (guy) friend is named Dana. I’ve always like the name Morgan as a gender neutral name.
I wanted to name our daughter James after my husband… we could have nick named her Jayme.. but no.. he wasn’t on board with it.. lol
Anyway remember in Friends when Rachel wanted to name her daughter James, but Ross vetoed it?
Haha didn’t see this–yes, this was my first thought.
This was literally a joke on Friends. Rachel wanted the name “James”, but only for a girl. Obviously, they ended up with Emma, something kinda overdone now.
I actually like the name, but this makes it seem somehow dated to me.
If I ever have a girl, I’ll name her Graham, which is my maiden name. Graham is a cool girl.
I will only believe this when they officially announce the baby’s name which I would bet she will do on the website she owns. he said he tells everyone he meets & does not want to blurt is out to the media. This is a family who wants to introduce their child on their own terms & not be forced into revealing something they do not want outsiders to know. He has always been secretive about his private life . I remember Sandra Bullock said Ryan can really keep a secret. She would trust him w/her life. He is determined not to let the media run his life. I think they both have learned how cruel that business is. Good for them.
oh please.
these morons are playing this “the name is a big secret!!” game not because they’re private, exactly the opposite. They want people to still be talking about their kid who was born a month ago. who cares.
+ 1
I remember Jacqueline Bisset playing a character named James in a TV series and thought at the time what an interesting first name for a woman. Also Michael Learned from the Waltons, another interesting use of a boy’s name.
On Nip/Tuck! I think it was spelled Jaimes, though, like a form on “J’aime”, french for “I love”. I remember thinking it was cool.
I always have to weigh in on the “‘boy’s name’ for a girl” game. The only annoying thing about being a girl named Ryan was kids in grade school asking why my parents named me that (My standard “Why don’t you ask them” answer always shut them up). After a quick stint of going by my feminine sounding middle name (which is traditionally a “boy’s name”) in 5th grade, I got over it, and now I love it. I believe it has helped me embrace my individuality. I don’t believe in names belonging to a sex, just nice names and stupid names. James is sweet.