Gwen Stefani gave birth! That happened faster than I was expecting, I think. Gwen and Gavin Rossdale welcomed their third child (their third son) on Friday in LA. Gwen announced that she was expecting another boy back in January.
So, what did they name their third son? The first son is named Kingston James McGregor Rossdale and the second boy is named Zuma Nesta Rock Rossdale (that still makes me shake my head, quite honestly). So, the third is named… Apollo Bowie Flynn Rossdale. Seriously. Gavin tweeted the name and he says that Bowie and Flynn are their mothers’ maiden names. Flynn is a cute middle name and I’m okay with Bowie if it’s a family name. But Apollo? I can’t. It doesn’t even pass my test for “OK, it’s a bad name but maybe it can easily be made into a cute nickname” sort of name. How do you abbreviate “Apollo”? Ap Rossdale? Pol? Polly? Lo? Lo Rossdale… that sounds like a used car salesman.
Anyway, I am happy for Gavin and Gwen. She wanted another baby very badly, and in the past year or so, she opened up a few times about a miscarriage she had in between Zuma and Apollo. I’m glad she gave birth to a healthy, bouncing baby boy and I hope everyone is doing well. And we know she has tons of baby stuff because – breaking some of the baby/mothering rules – Gwen had a baby shower for her third.
Photos courtesy of WENN and Fame/Flynet.
Apollo? He’s the greek god and protector of music. The name, although rare, does make sense given that his parents are both celebrity musicians.
It is a Greek god, but it’s still a weird name. Also, what if the poor kid doesn’t grow up to be handsome?
I kinda envy you Americans for middle names. We don’t do them here, and if someone has one, it’s always pronounced. You get to pick more names.
Yeah, isn’t it a bit of pressure on the kid to be named Apollo.
Theres only one man fit to carry that name and Drago killed him in that fourth Rocky installment. Yet another mighty fail from the Rossdale-Steffanis. They cant name a child right for sh*t.
The headline on the Daily Mail yesterday said they gave him an “out of this world name.” I thought,”Please God, do not tell me they named that child Uranus or something.”
Apollo is not that bad. I immediately thought of the three Apollos that everyone else has mentioned: the god, the Olympian, and the fictional boxer from the Rocky movies. The name could have been a lot worse. (And let’s face it, the Rossdales have done worse. Zuma Nesta Rock?! Sigh. The only part of that I like is Nesta because that was part of Bob Marley’s name.)
Don’t forget the Olympic skater and DWTS fan favorite Apolo Anton Ohno. He spells it with only one ‘l’. He’s good looking and a very nice chap.
I didn’t. That’s who I meant by “the Olympian.” I just didn’t account for the one L. 🙂
Apolo Ohno is very hot – sometimes miss those hot guy fridays – he would make the list.
out of this world is for the apollo space shuttle reference. I like the greek god connotation much better and that is my first association with the name. I don’t even think about Rocky the movie until i’m reminded of it. The skater is a distant second to the greek god.
Congrats to Gwen and Gavin.
I guess since we have Apollo Ohno it has become a more popular name.
I was thinking she was going to have the baby or had it because she has not been seen. And Gwen was seen a LOT during this pregnancy.
Not my favorite name; but not my baby. I’m happy for them.
I thnk Apollo is fine. I don’t like the name Zuma at all. It doesn’t fit on him and sounds more like a girl’s name.
I loved the Bowie middle name more when I thought it was after the great David Bowie.
I would have no qualms abouy naming my kid Bowie. It has a nice sound, it’s easy to spell, cute for either gender, and who doesn’t freakin love the almighty Bowie?? Apollo’s okay but not my taste.
I’m not a fan of Zuma, either. It reminds me too much of Zimas (are those even around anymore?)
I’m an LA local so for me, Zuma is a beach!!! Also sounds really feminine, to me anyways. Ah well.
Apollo is not my cup of tea either (it reminds me of Romeo Beckham – yuck!), but Bowie would be great!
Congrats to them – they have the cutest kids!!
I’m so surprised that people don’t like Apollo….it’s not a made up name….or named after a place like Zuma. Romeo is a little too literature try hard to me [though I don’t hate it]. but Apollo is truly a classical name. Simple, elegant, unique, pretty and also strong.
Apollo is not to my liking. But I love Flynn in fact it is what I named my baby boy only two weeks ago
Adorable name… Congrats!
Flynn is a great name. Apollo is eye-rolly to me, but better than Zuma Nesta Rock- ew. Actually, I don’t think Apollo would bother me if it weren’t for their try-hard-to-be different Zuma.
Congratulations on your new arrival! And I like Flynn, too. 🙂
Thanks 🙂
Congratulations! Flynn is a handsome name, I love it.
Actually I think Apollo Bowie Flynn is miles better than Zuma Nesta Rock! Wtf?!
Not a fan of Apollo. Bowie Flynn are better names. I don’t think Gwen actually announced her pregnancy. It was obvious for the last 4 or 5 months.
I prefer name combinations that flow a bit better, it sounds like a big jumble of try hard cool, but I guess if Bowie is a family name they can get away with it. Apollo is better than Zuma at least!
I follow my usual rules on this one: not my kid, so I’ll keep my mouth shut on the name.
Name aside, congratulations to them. This child is sure to be adored and loved like the other two. She really, really wanted a baby so I’m happy for her.
The names they’ve chosen aren’t my cup of tea but I agree (nor did everyone like my kids’ names either) — not my kid so who cares?
I’m thrilled they had another healthy child and I’m equally thrilled that their marriage is going well (one of the interviews that was linked above mentions that). So an all around congrats to them!
😀
That’s my birthday! I actually like the name. You really didn’t think they’d name their boy Aiden or John did you?
Happy Belated Birthday!
I’m still ticked that having a shower/party for a subsequent baby (ESPECIALLY after a loss) is somehow poor form. ALL babies should be celebrated! People love babies & pregnant women & I think its nuts that etiquette forbids the celebration of a family edition. I get that almost all celeb baby showers are over the top & pretty damn ridiculous, but the “rule” that a family can’t have a baby shower/party for a new baby is just crazy. My friends threw me a shower for my second (also a rainbow baby) because they wanted to celebrate with my family. How could that possibly be a bad thing?
Anyway. These 2 were never going to give their babe a “normal” name & I’m surprised that it isn’t more off the wall. Maybe he’ll decide to go by Bowie when he gets older
You can celebrate a baby without having a party. It’s a cultural thing. Maybe not yours but for many people, it’s frowned upon. No need to get so riled up about. My mom didn’t have a shower for me and I promise, I don’t feel unloved.
I’m not riled up at all; I just think the mere fact that there are rules about these things is silly at best & that its ridiculous to criticize a family for breaking them. This isn’t an isolated thing; I’ve seen people complaining about subsequent showers all over the place.
And I certainly don’t think that no shower/party = unloved baby
“People love babies & pregnant women & I think its nuts that etiquette forbids the celebration of a family edition.”
Not everyone loves babies and pregnant women and not everyone wants to buy gifts all the time. It’s great if a woman has close friends and family who want to throw her a party but people don’t want to feel obligated to do so. Plus most parents save baby stuff so it seems greedy to keep asking for new stuff with every child.
So true. Mostly the money part. I love babies and kids, but especially in somewhat shaky economic times, a lot of people really can’t afford to be buying gifts for others, particularly people who probably have stuff leftover from a previous kid.
+amillion
The rule isn’t silly, if you think about the reasoning behind holding showers.
In my neck of the woods, baby showers aren’t primarily about celebrating babies or pregnancy. They are rooted in the practical matter of setting up an nursery and some starter clothes for the baby, and the thought is once it is set up it can be used for all subsequent kids. It’s analogous to setting up a home by holding a wedding shower.
Friends and family of ordinary working folks can’t be called upon to subsidize all kids but it’s an nice gesture when someone is starting a family. And people don’t really “love babies and pregnant women” – there are varying opinions on them for sure, particularly if you are called upon to buy things for them on several occasions.
Gwen runs in wealthy famous circles so maybe this is something that her friends wanted to do, and that’s fine. If it’s something that works in your circle and is accepted, that’s fine.
But I understand the fatigue that sets in when ordinary working stiffs are called to celebrate second and third kids with a shower. With all the kids in my family and social circle, I would have gone broke if there had been a shower for every single one.
I know this will sound cold hearted, but I’m especially irritated with this – “But it’s been years since my last baby and I gave away all my baby things”, and this – “But my other children are opposite gender, I don’t have any things for this gender” (as if any of the big ticket items are gender specific).
To be very blunt – not my problem. Believe me, I’ve outfitted every baby I’ve every been acquainted with. People have 2-3 baby showers every pregnancy and it’s hard to avoid them. I did not solicit gifts when I graduated from college, and I’ve never had one housewarming party – even though I had never had a home and surely that means people are obligated to furnish my home for me.
I will celebrate every baby ever born. Throw yourself a party and send me an invitation that says no gifts please, or in lieu of gifts, please donate to such and such charity. I understand that most mothers feel everything balances out in the long run. But if you don’t have children yourself, there’s nothing to balance. It’s all give give give. And in the age of kindergarten graduation parties, quinceanera parties, and other meaningless gift soliciting events, it’s exhausting and irritating and frankly unaffordable.
That baby shower was totally bad form. Let’s face it, a shower is an occasion that requires guests bring a gift. Perhaps in celeb circles it is perfectly acceptable, but in the real world a shower for anything but the first baby is tacky.
@Mayamae. I feel for you . I didn’t marry until my late 30’s and it pissed me off that I was invited to so many gift soliciting events. I passed on the chance to have a baby shower of my own because my wedding shower and wedding was the previous year. I was too embarrassed to have a party obligating people to bring a gift. After my daughter was born, I was completely touched by the number of people who sent a gift anyway.
@Jen34
I think that says so much good about you that you didn’t want to obligate people to give you another gift after they had just given you shower and wedding gifts and didn’t have a baby shower. It’s refreshing to see someone who thinks about these things. No wonder so many people gave you a gift anyway. You sound like a lovely person.
I’ve never read the comments on this site before and this is a first time post. Wow so many people here are so judgy. How many internationally renowned sexy rock stars are posting here? There’s so much negativity.
I agree, really sad that when a baby is born everyone gets ready to tear down the parents for the naming, the pregnancy, etc. The child has nothing to do with everyone’s preconceived notions and I feel it’s bad karma to throw that energy the child’s way when they are just starting on their journey in life.
Its nothing but a bunch of bitchy ladies on here. I love the name! And who cares what other people name their kids, unique names are cool and very common right now.
I know she really wanted a girl though. 🙁
Wonder if they’ll try again?
She’s already 44 and I would hope the 50/50 odds of having a girl aren’t driving her decision to have another child. It’s only rags that reported she hoped for a girl. We really have no idea what she “wanted” and I really doubt she ever actually said out loud to any news source that she wanted one over the other.
She may not have outright stated that she wanted a girl, but she kind of implied it with this instagram post:
“I was ready to hand over the crown. But I guess I am still queen of the house. #itsaboy #surroundedbyboys.”
http://instagram.com/p/jR3rkXOLWg/#
I always thought the odds for having a different-sexed child get lower after multiple children of the the same sex. My brother and his wife just had their FOURTH boy on Thursday. I know they were trying for a girl, but I don’t see a niece in my future. And that is perfectly okay – I adore my Matthew, Joseph, Caleb and new baby Nathan!
My aunt had three boys–all pretty spaced apart from each other–and she just had a girl last year. She was so mad when it was a girl–she wanted a boy, because she said a girl would turn out just like her. We’ll see.
How do you know this?
My thoughts exactly. Too bad she won’t have a little girl in her own image.
I would imagine she has already fallen in love with her new little boy and feels joyful.
I wonder why they didn’t do more to ensure a girl if that was what Gwen had her heart set on. If you have unlimited money you could do IVF and only implant a girl embryo. Or do sperm sort and try to increase the odds of girl only sperm. I’m thinking Bruce Willis will have a boy this time using one of those methods. Then again, maybe some of these celebrities that have only one gender aren’t as disappointed to have more of the same gender as we think they are.
Isn’t “gender picking” illegal? This is a major issue in places like China and India. I think she got pregnant the good old fashioned way. Be happy with whatever God gives you. Honestly, I don’t know how people manage to have more than one child. One child is demanding enough. Kudos to anyone who can do it.
I don’t think those methods are necessarily reliable or safe.
Hopefully Gwen S. and Gavin R. are rational enough not to want one gender over another, and just wished for a healthy child.
However, they are not rational enough to give their kids decent names. Kingston is a fairly bad name, Zuma is a HORRIBLE name, and Apollo is a somewhat horrible name.
That would mean invasive and exhausting fertility treatments. She’s 44 and IVF is not particularly effective at that age, at least not with your own eggs.
I like to think Gwen is happy with what she has.
Last I heard, gender selection was illegal in the US. It’s often said that Victoria Beckham used science to ensure a girl, but who knows if there’s any fact to that.
Regarding gender selection in other countries being illegal – I think that addresses the issue of aborting female fetuses rather than implanting gender specific embryos.
@ mayamae
Actually it’s both. There are countries that use both abortion and implantation. It just depends on how much money you have. The weathier ones tend to get implantation to ensure it’s a boy while poorer people use ultrasound by paying a shady doctor and then get an abortion if it’s a girl. It’s ALL illegal, but that doesn’t stop people from doing it.
Actually, gender selection is NOT illegal in the USA. It is illegal in Canada, the UK, Europe, Australia, India and China though. There are plenty of fertility clinics in the USA that offer IVF with preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) that will allow you to implant only one sex. It usually costs upwards of $20-25,000 for the IVF/PGD cycle so the average person couldn’t afford it unless it was medically necessary.
I did not know gender selection was legal in the US, but I’m not super surprised. In vitro twins are too frequently male/female to be conincidental.
@ someone – thanks for the knowledge. I don’t live in the U.S. but thought their policies regarding gender selection were similar to the rest of the world’s.
Maybe Polo as a nickname? That’s a tough one.
Love Zuma, soo cute. Really like Kingston. Apollos going to have to grow on me! So happy for her though!!!
The greek god of music, poetry, art, healing and the Sun, and always said to be a strong, physically beautiful god to boot…I think it’s a great name. And a real one, as well. It has been a given name for thousands of years.
I want to drink whatever Gwen is…she has to be a vampire. It’s not fair. I’m twenty one years old and i’d say i’m pretty fit and take care of myself as best as a broke college ed major can..but she looks younger than me!!!
No, she doesn’t. If you saw her in person, you’d see underneath all that spackled on makeup, she looks more like Bette Davis in Baby Jane. Let go of the excessive bleaching, you twat it’s apparently leaked into your brain! Christ, talk about try hard with those idiotic names & what an unfortunate looking (wo)man. But we all know why he stays with her.
Well I don’t hate it. There’s Apollo Anton Ohno and that works. Zuma is just hideous. Put a KICK ME sign on the poor kid why don’t you?
Each child should be celebrated so why not a low key fun event where gifts go to charity? Her friends can afford it.
Such a beautiful family! She somehow always manages to look amazing, it’s incredible. Congrats to her and Gavin!!
What a terrible name… anyway, congratulations to them!
So is she going to start with the hair bleach with Apollo at 3 months old as she did with the older boys? I mean I understand she wants to stay super platinum ..but why her sons? It’s okay for them to be the brunet they were born isn’t it? Cute kids. But I hate that she bleaches their hair as well.
For some reason I thought that Gwen had three or four kids–I don’t know why. Can’t believe this is only her third kid!?!
Eh, the name isn’t actively terrible—my older sister had this friend who named her child ‘Sexily’, but pronounced it ‘Cecily’–ugh.
Oh, the bad name game!
My mom worked with someone named Fifany – because she was the fifth born.
That is seriously sick.
Sexily wins the really, really bad name contest. What was she thinking? Gross.
I also have a cousin who names her kids after her favorite drinks/liquor. I haven’t seen her or the kids in years, but one of the names is ‘Courvoisier’–she calls him ‘Vasi’….after some f-cking cognac. Ugh.
If you want to play the bad name games, in Hong Kong (the country) where I used to live in, the locals named their kids with chinese and western names for easier calling. You will not believe the names they have. My ex colleague’s name is CREAMY!! F*ckin CREAMY!!! and the other one is Ripple and Piano. I swear, every time Creamy called from accounting department I always stifle a laugh!
Dislike Apollo. Bowie would’ve been better. Still, I thought their two older sons were named after places, but this name doesn’t fit that theme at all.
So over the weird celebrity baby names. It would actually be more avant guard to give your baby a classic old name like Henry or something.
Her styling is impeccable
oh, I LOVE Apollo. It’s a classic, as in classical mythology.
I was going to use that name for my next child, but I never like to go with celebrity trends….[I already have one son with a greek god baby name, who gets complimented on his name all the time!] I think Apollo is elegant, and pretty yet also strong and masculine. Much better than Zuma, IMO.
Good choice. And why does it even need a nickname? They could always go with ‘Paul’/pol
Though, one comment I have heard is the ‘A pollo’, a chicken, in spanish…i’m sure apollo loco will be a common saying for him, living in CA.