Gisele Bundchen and Tom Brady with Benjamin and John in September (Splash News)
Gisele Bündchen and Tom Brady welcomed their "little angel" — daughter Vivian Lake Brady — on Wednesday, and already her name is generating some buzz. omg! readers have been weighing in on the moniker and so far the celebrity couple is getting a thumbs up. So what's in a name? Let's take a look…
Vivian is of Latin origin and means "lively" and "alive," which hints that she was an active baby when Bundchen, 32, was pregnant, and it also has a sound that is popular among new parents these days. "V is the hot letter for girls right now," baby name expert and author Laura Wattenberg from BabyNameWizard.com tells omg!. "It had been 'l,' but it's shifted if you look at Ava, Evelyn, Violet, and of course Vivienne, which was chosen by Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt. Also, one of the hottest rising names last year was Aviana, which Amy Adams concocted for her daughter based on where the actress was born — in Aviano, Italy."
[Related: Gisele Bundchen Shows Off Her Pregnant Belly in a Bikini]
Bundchen and Brady at the Met Gala in May (Getty Images)While Vivian is in line with what is trendy as far as American baby names, it's also a traditional selection for the couple, who tied the knot in 2009. Noting that Bündchen and Brady, 35, "played it straight" with their choice because it's "familiar and useable," Wattenberg went on to add that Vivian also has a "classic Hollywood feel" like stars of yesteryear Vivien Leigh and Veronica Lake. "It's understated glamour," she notes, "and I can see this being a case where this celebrity baby has a lot of influence" on name trends.
As far as Lake, which is much more unusual (unless you are, say, actress Lake Bell), Wattenberg explains that couples who go traditional for the first name can then be a little more daring with the middle one. "In general today, middle names are often used to express something different from the first name," she notes. "I think of the middle name as almost a private message from the parents to the baby because that's not what he or she is going to go by every day."
Bundchen with Benjamin (Splash News)It seems that Bündchen and Brady like water-inspired middle names because their 3-year-old son, Benjamin Rein, has one as well. In 2010, Bündchen told Vogue that she had originally wanted to name her son River "because I wanted something always flowing, immortal." The only problem? Her NFL star husband wasn't a fan. So the couple then decided on Rein because, as she explained, "my father's name is Reinoldo, so it's a homage to him. And it's like water." And while rain and rein have completely different meanings — at this time of year, it's likely Santa Claus holding the reins as he guides Dasher, Dancer, and the gang — it's close enough, we guess, and not as out there as some other things celebrities have come up with.
[Related: Gisele Bundchen's 5-Year-Old Niece Is Designing a Clothing Line]
Bundchen shared this photo of Vivian. (Facebook)The water-inspired monikers could also be tied to the way in which Bündchen delivered her children. (Brady also has a 5-year-old son John, but he is from the football star's relationship with "Blue Bloods" star Bridget Moynahan.) While we don't know all the details about Vivian's arrival just yet, we do know that it was a home birth, and it seems likely that she would model it after her delivery of Benjamin, which she described to Vogue as "the most amazing experience of my life." When Bündchen gave birth in 2009, she had her midwife friend from Brazil attending to her as she delivered her son in warm water in a bathtub that overlooked the Charles River in Boston.
Bündchen has said that she plans to have "lots of children," so the couple will have to repeat this process many more times with the future Bradys. Perhaps one day they'll have a Brook, Delta, or Marina, too?
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