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Actress Nicole Kidman is the proud mother of Sunday.

Posted August 12, 2008 by Audrey Turcot and Tommi Lewis Tilden

If you've glanced at an entertainment magazine in the last couple of weeks, you can't miss that "wacky celeb baby names" are the "it" topic du jour.

To wit, a smattering of the latest: Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban's daughter Sunday, Matthew McConaughey and Camilla Alvirez's son Levi, Jessica Alba and Cash Warren's daughter Honor.

Thing is, this rash of odd monikers is nothing new for Hollywood's elite. Think back to the days of Sonny and Cher and their bouncing baby, Chastity. Or Psycho star Anthony Perkins and his son Osgood. Or, heck, even, father Frank for making sure his Zappa offspring would never suffer the humiliation of being named something as mundane as, well, Frank -- opting for Moon Unit, Dweezil, and Diva Thin Muffin Pigeen Zappa instead.

And, if you really stop to think about it, lots of today's biggest stars were bestowed "special" names by their parents and ... look what it did for them!

How many Oprahs were in your high school? Any Madonnas on your swim team? Ever have a sleepover at a Gwyneth's house or jam with an Elvis?

Sure, it's fun to giggle or gasp over some of the stars' choices (like with magician Penn Jillette having conjured "Moxie CrimeFighter" for his daughter or Jason Lee's having picked "Pilot Inspektor" for his boy) but, as The New York Times pointed out a few years back, "psychologists say that the naming of children can function as a window into a psyche. Perhaps subconsciously, they say, stars seize the opportunity of parenthood to express their obsessions, ambitions, and inner quirks in a way that is, for a change, unscripted and not stage-managed by publicists."

"There's a sense of 'I'm special, I'm different, and therefore my child is special and different,'" Jenn Berman, a clinical psychologist in Beverly Hills, who has worked with actors, told The Times.

And, despite the fact that the most popular baby names in America are "normal" names like Jacob, Michael, Ethan, Emily, Isabella, and Emma, surely, it's not just the rich and famous who have a penchant for the less-than-ordinary naming -- it's just that we don't know every time someone in Peoria christens their little one "Thunderbird License Plate" or some such thing.

As for how the kids themselves feel about it, opinions vary.  Nineteen-year-old Peaches Honeyblossom Michelle Charlotte Angel Vanessa Geldof, daughter of ever-altruistic Live Aid mastermind, Sir Bob Geldof has said, "I hate ridiculous names, my weird name has haunted me all my life." Peaches sisters' names are Fifi Trixibelle and Little Pixie; her half sister is Heavenly Hiraani Tiger Lily.

Similarly, in 2005 Shia LaBeouf told the AP that, "after 19 years of getting into fights over my name and hearing it mispronounced, I can't believe celebrities are still coming up with weird names for their kids! Name your kid Billy and Timmy! What is the problem with that?" he wondered.

On the flipside there's Joaquin Phoenix, who, despite having a "different" name was jealous of his siblings' earthier ones (River, Rain, Summer, and Liberty) and who announced at a young age that he was changing his name to Leaf. "I changed my name because no one in the States could pronounce 'Joaquin' and I used to get really embarrassed about it as a kid. All the other kids in my family had gorgeous names and I got 'Joaquin.' " Guess as he got a little older, he realized "Wah-keen" wasn't so hard to say after all.

From the annals of "real life" comes this story from New Zealand. Seems there was a custody battle being waged by the parents of 9-year-old -- get this -- Talula Does The Hula. Honest to goodness that's her given name. The judge made her a ward of the state so her name could be changed.

"The court is profoundly concerned about the very poor judgment which this child's parents have shown in choosing this name," said the judge, "It makes a fool of the child and sets her up with a social disability and handicap, unnecessarily."

Not so says Coldplay's front man, Chris Martin. The 31-year-old father of Apple and Moses says: "People make a big fuss over names. There's nothing weird about calling your baby Chewbacca if that's what you want to call your baby. It's no stranger than Sarah."

But, Chris, tell us how you really feel: "A name is just a noise, and if you like it, then [expletive] what everyone else says!"