If you've even paid a minute amount of attention to the media this week, most likely you've heard that Kim Kardashian and Kanye West have graced their newborn daughter with quite a "directional" name -- North West.
Even before I sat down to write this, I felt very apprehensive because I just couldn't imagine someone naming their child this. When I first got the news I simply denied it. "Maybe TMZ needs to do another fact check," I said. It almost seems like I'm going through the four stages of grief at this point, and to a degree you may be correct.
I immediately went to Twitter and along with thousands of other users, expressed my slight disgust over another case of "Celebrity Baby Names Gone Wrong." What urged Kimye to do this? Like most teenagers today would say, I was a little bit "salty."
Acceptance took the wheel and I took a step back.
Kim and Kanye are celebrities. At this point in their lives they're essentially household names. To be in their position is really a rare thing -- regardless of what they did to get there. Maybe by naming their child something so unusual -- and frankly unacceptable by many -- they're really just trying to mirror their desire for their child to have a life like theirs. Their daughter can't verbally communicate with them at this point, so isn't the granting of a highly uncommon combination of names a superficial way of defining her future? The stranger the name the more unique of a path she'll take in life?
Now obviously, most parents hope that their child will have a unique life experience (and considering there are about 7 billion unique individuals out there, that shouldn't be a problem) but there are still a great deal of Johns and Janes out there. But why? Well, it can be said that a common name doesn't necessarily denote a common future.
Did Kim and Kanye hope that by naming North West uniquely, she'll be a superstar? President? Saver of the galaxy? Well, probably not but then again she is the daughter of two A-listers so the superstar epithet isn't necessarily too far off.
Most people will tell you that Kimye's decision was simply narcissistic. That they developed a child's name like no other, simply to say that their child is more special than other children -- so a special or unique name is befitting. This kind of "narcissism" has certainly been called into question many times. Gwyneth Paltrow and the naming of her daughter Apple, as well as the naming of Jermaine Jackson's son Jermajesty -- have often been targeted. And if you've even once indulged in the media in the past year, you would know that Beyonce and Jay-Z gave birth to a baby girl whom they named Blue Ivy.
I took a more positive look into the situation and realized that the majority of celebrities are artists. The media is infatuated with famous actors, singers, musicians, etc., so is it their inherent creativity that led them to developing such eccentric names? There are many parents who aren't famous and still give their children out-of-the-ordinary names and I'm sure you'll meet at least one of these people in your life if you haven't already. Are these ordinary people simply being creative too?
Whether or not these celebrities named their children out of narcissism or just pure creativity, let's just take a step back and look into these kids' futures. I mean, seriously, bullying is not exempt from affecting the children of the famous. Whether you're a celebrity or not, thinking about a child's future should be the most important factor of all.
Let's hope all goes well for the future directions, decorative plants, and tree fruits of Hollywood.