Chloe Sevigny named her newborn son Vanja Sevigny Mačković

Chloe Sevigny gave birth this past weekend! I’m genuinely happy for her, even though she loathes yuppie scum and the New York bourgeoisie! She’s so avant-garde, our Chloe! She also is a new mom at the age of 45. I have no idea how old her lover/partner is, but he looks younger and many have theorized that he was born in the 1980s. His name is Sinisa Mackovic and he’s Croatian, although I think he’s been living in America for a while. He works in the art world. As far as anyone knows, this is his first child too. All of this to say, they’ve named their baby and they leaned heavily on the Croatian names. From Chloe’s Instagram:

Welcome to the world Vanja Sevigny Mačković

Born May 2nd New York City

Thank you to all the staff at Mt. Sinai East for your bravery, perseverance and kindness, especially the nurses for being so gentle and patient.

Blessings to all the other families giving birth during this time.

#ilovemyboys 🐣

[From Chloe’s IG]

Vanja Sevigny Mačković is no X Æ A-12 Musk. Although I could totally see Vanja and X Æ A-12 in the same prestigious kindergarten, and those playdates will be a MESS. Considering Sinisa’s Croatian roots, I would assume that “Vanja” is pronounced “Vanya,” am I correct? I’m still struggling with the last name too! My best guess is van-YA Sevigny mak-OH-vich? That’s probably wrong. Anyway, congrats to Chloe, Sinisa and Vanja.

Pregnant Chloe Sevigny and boyfriend Sinisa Mackovic are all smiles shopping for baby clothes in NYC

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Instagram.

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31 Responses to “Chloe Sevigny named her newborn son Vanja Sevigny Mačković”

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  1. lemonylips says:

    NJ is one letter in Croatian and is phonetically pronounced as ɲ – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0NIZNgVKaY but I do believe many will call him Vanya. Also in Croatia it’s a name for both boys and girls and I love it.

    • FrenchGirl says:

      +1

    • Snazzy says:

      It’s a great name, love it!
      His mom inspires Goop level reactions in me though, I just CAN’T

    • Godwina says:

      Is Vanja a diminutive of Ivan in Croatia, as it is in some other Slavic spots? That’s all I think about when I see Vanja or Vanya. Mind you, I’m aware Ivan isn’t as common a name in Central Europe.

      • Laalaa says:

        Hi! Ivan is an extremely common name in Croatia, but Vanja isn’t, so I don’t believe it’s a deminutive, because Ivan is John to us, and Vanja… is I believe from Russian origin.
        I mean – I don’t think we associate Ivan with Vanja at all.
        Correct me if I’m wrong!

      • lemonylips says:

        Ivan is very common in Croatia. Vanja is a version of it, another name in Croatian but in Russian it is diminutive. Ivan is John in English. So I guess Vanja could be John too 🙂 In Scandinavian culture as I know Wanya is only a girls name. I love this name game

      • geekychick says:

        No, it’s essentially russian name adopted into Croatian during panslavic movement in 19th century. We do have Ivan and you can interpret Vanja as diminutive of Ivan, but I haven’t heard anyone in Croatia ever calling someone named Ivan-Vanja. Ivan is actually a very common name in Central Europe, in Slavic countries-Slovenia, Croatia, I’vemet Slovak and Czech people named Ivan many times. 🙂

      • Godwina says:

        I lived in Czechia and really met no Ivans to the point where I noticed the absence (I have a strange love of the name), but I’ll take your word for it! 🙂

        (And yes, Vanya is the Slavic “Johnny” or “Jack”, when I’ve heard it used. I guess the Croatian Vanja is like the way English folks now sometimes just call their kid Jack full stop–not as a short form for John on the birth certificate, even though that’s the provenance.)

    • crogirl says:

      Correct.
      And the last name is Machkovich.

  2. Laalaa says:

    Vanya MaCHkoviCH

    Mač – as macho
    Ko- as covid
    Vić – as which

    NJ is a special kind of a letter, explained in a comment above 🙂

    YES! proud to be a Croatian

    • lemonylips says:

      props to girls @celebitchy for using the č and ć letters!!!!!!! being away from home now this was so cute. thanks @kaiser. I had to respell my name in official documents so people could pronunce it.

      • Laalaa says:

        Yeees, I agree! Thank you, celebitchy ladies!

        And here are the extra Č, Ć, NJ, LJ, DŽ, Đ and Ž for you 🙂

    • Kaiser says:

      Mach-KOH-vich, yes? Okay.

  3. Jenn says:

    Sounds pretty correct to me! A friend of mine has the same surname slightly “Americanized,” and his pronunciation has a surprise “s” sound: Mosk-OH-vich. I have no idea if that’s THE pronunciation, but it’s how I’ve read Chloe’s partner’s name in my head each time.

    Regarding Grimes’s child, I only just learned last night that, here in the state of California, you can’t have ANY “special characters” on a baby’s birth certificate — not even accent marks! I realize it’s mainly to do with our nation’s aging infrastructure, but doesn’t that seem a little… um, problematic?! I was shocked.

    • geekychick says:

      you all keep missing the ch, č or ć. it’s not an extra silent sign, it’s an actual, honest to god sounding letter, I swear. 😀 Mačković. Lalaaa explained it perfectly. 🙂

    • Godwina says:

      Thank God for my time living in Prague and studying Czech–I’ll never miss those haceks again lol!

  4. Lightpurple says:

    It works with the last name and is an actual name for human beings, as opposed to a name for a vegetable or object in space. I like it.

  5. Kamala says:

    I wonder if Larry Clark will be taking the baby photos?

  6. manda says:

    I’m old enough to remember her from when she interned at sassy magazine. I like her in Love & Friendship so much, but I’m pretty sure she comes from privilege and I find it uncool that she craps on people working for their living or living middle class lives. They don’t get to live in NY? Not everyone is from Darien, CT, chloe. What a snobby thing to say, I’m sure she’s insufferable

  7. jferber says:

    Hell, I like her. Congrats on the new baby. I have her perfume, Little Flower and it’s delightful. Yes, she is cutting edge cool and I genuinely love her style.

  8. babsjohnson says:

    I love the name, so beautiful for a boy. Boy’s name are so difficult to me, I dislike most of them (I’m actively looking for names since I’m pregnant). Unfortunately Vanya is impossible to bear in my country as it’s a brand of pads.

    • Slowsnow says:

      Oh god hadn’t made the connection! 🤦🏽‍♀️
      Vania…
      Now that’s all I can think about. Thanks 🥴

      • babsjohnson says:

        Sorry…I thought about it mainly because I assumed Chloé sevigny was french but maybe not?

  9. minx says:

    My nephew is a film editor in Los Angeles and his company asked her to narrate a low budget film about skateboarding…I want to say about 10 years ago? He said she was so kind and gracious, so I’ve always thought well of her since then.

  10. Silvie says:

    Love this name and I’m happy for her. So, so happy for her. Knew her when we were kids, and she’s going to be a great mom.

  11. A.Key says:

    Vanja’s a Russian name, and it’s as Russian as they get. Just FYI.