Baby name story: Gala

In 2007, a UK woman named Shelley Smith went into labor at Gala Bingo, a bingo hall in West Yorkshire. She gave birth 20 minutes later at a hospital, but didn’t forget the bingo hall when she named her daughter Mika Jade Gala.

The only other gambling-related baby names I can think of are GoldenPalace.com and Wynn. Have you come across any others?

Source: Mother names child after bingo hall

4 thoughts on “Baby name story: Gala

  1. You know, that doesn’t bother me (even though I’m not a bingo player…). If my last had been a girl, she would have been Marguerite Josephine because her father and I met at Marguerite Hall, a dorm at our college. Gala at least sounds like a name. I mean, if she’d been an Oklahoma bingo player she might have wound up with a daughter named Feather Warrior or something like that.

  2. That’s a nice kettle of fish! What does it mean – “Gala at least sounds like a name”?! It IS a name! Real name, short form from Galina. Maybe it is not common in English-speaking countries, but it exists. It derived from Greek, Galini means “”calm sea”.

  3. Hi Gala,

    Gala is so rarely used as a name here the U.S. that I doubt many people would think of it as a name before thinking of it as an adjective/noun. So, while you may be right about Gala being a nickname in some places, in this context — with Gala coming straight from Gala Bingo — it’s not a name. It’s simply a word that sounds like a name, as Bridgett said.

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