Nelly Furtado was named after Nellie Kim

Nelly Furtado's album "Whoa, Nelly!" (2000)

Portuguese-Canadian pop singer Nelly Furtado was born in British Columbia in December of 1978.

Her full name at birth was Nelly Kim Furtado, and, back when she was promoting her first album, she mentioned (during a Yahoo! Music chat) that her given names were inspired by an athlete:

lovegrowsdeeper: is nelly short for noella?

launch_nelly_furtado: No, just Nelly. Nelly Kim Furtado. I was named after a gymnast.

Soviet gymnast Nelli Kim competed against Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal. Both Nelli and Nadia earned more than one “perfect 10” at the Games that year, but Nadia’s initial 10 came first.

During the years she was competing, Kim’s first name was typically transliterated “Nelli.” These days she lives in the U.S. and seems to prefer the spelling “Nellie.”

Interestingly, Nellie Kim knows about her namesake and is eager to meet her:

– Do you know the singer Nelly Furtado, who was named after you?

– Her full name is Nelly Kim Furtado. Here’s the story… I don’t know how to contact her. About 10-15 years ago she came to Minneapolis with a concert, my American friends wrote her an email: Dear Nelly, you know, Nellie Kim is also here, it would be great to meet, gather both Nellie Kims, get acquainted. But there is probably some filtering going on there: someone from her management apparently considered this letter a joke.

But who knows what will happen — maybe some journalist will tell her: dear, there’s this Nellie Kim, she lives basically across the road from you. You’re in Canada, she’s in Minneapolis, an hour flight.

I hope they’re able to get together someday. :)

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Baltimore Orioles baby names: Adley, Grayson, Cal

Baseball catcher Adley Rutschman
Adley Rutschman

Will the name Adley — which has been trendy for baby girls recently — start seeing more usage among baby boys? Particularly among baby boys in Maryland?

I ask because a recent Baltimore Sun article listed three Maryland babies who were born this year to Orioles fans and named after young Orioles catcher Adley Rutschman:

  • Trevor Adley Thompson (boy)
  • Adley Kenney (girl)
  • Grayson Adley Shepke (boy)

Admittedly, the two boys were given Adley as a middle name. But I’m sure other boys will get it as a first name following the team’s impressive 2023 season. (One expectant family mentioned in the article is considering using the name for their son, due in January.)

Other Orioles players who might be influencing baby names this year include third baseman/shortstop Gunnar Henderson, outfielder Cedric Mullins, and pitchers Grayson Rodriguez and Félix Bautista.

A former player who had a discernible influence on U.S. baby names several decades ago is Calvin “Cal” Ripkin, Jr., who was with the Orioles for his entire career (from 1981 to 2001).

P.S. Female country singer Adley Stump, who participated in the second season of The Voice, helped popularize the name Adley for baby girls in the early 2010s.

Update, Jan. 2024: The first baby born at the University of Maryland Baltimore Washington Medical Center (UM BWMC) in 2024 was a girl named Adley Michelle Jobst. The Oriole Bird (the baseball team’s mascot) paid a visit to the Jobst family in mid-January.

Update, May 2024: According to the SSA’s 2023 baby name data, Adley saw higher usage among baby boys last year (increasing from 26 to 61) and lower usage among baby girls. Maryland was the state that welcomed both the most boys named Adley (15) and the most girls named Adley (27).

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Image: Adapted from Adley Rutschman by Keith Allison under CC BY-SA 2.0.

Keith Richards named his baby after Marlon Brando

Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones (in 1965)
Keith Richards

In August of 1969, Rolling Stones guitarist/songwriter Keith Richards and his girlfriend, model/actress Anita Pallenberg, welcomed their first child, a baby boy. They named him Marlon.

Why Marlon?

In his 2010 memoir Life, Richards explained:

Marlon’s full name is Marlon Leon Sundeep. Brando called up while Anita was in hospital, to compliment her on [her role in the movie] Performance. “Marlon, that’s a good name. Why don’t we call him Marlon?”

It’s a curious that they chose “Marlon” given the fact that, during the filming of the 1968 movie Candy, Marlon Brando had tried to seduce Anita, “and, when that failed, tried to seduce Anita and me together.” Maybe the choice had more to do with the timing of the phone call…?

In any case, Richards and Pallenberg (who also had a role in the movie Barbarella) would go on to have two more children: daughter Dandelion Angela in 1972, and son Tara in 1976.

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Image: Keith Richards 1965 (public domain) by Olavi Kaskisuo

Baby born during pipeline protest, named Mni Wiconi (“water is life”)

Sacred Stone Camp, North Dakota (Aug. 2016)
Sacred Stone Camp, North Dakota

From April of 2016 to February of 2017, indigenous people representing hundreds of Native American tribes gathered in temporary camps at the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota to protest the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline, which threatened the region’s water supply.

The movement’s rallying cry was the Lakota expression “Mni Wiconi” (pronounced m’NEE wee-CHOH-nee), meaning “water is life.”

On October 12, in the early morning, a baby girl was born at one of the camps to Lakota woman Zintkala Mahpiya Wi Blackowl (Sky Bird Woman Blackowl), who had traveled from Oregon to take part in the protest.

Although her husband and family were sleeping in the same tipi, the birth was a private event. In the traditional Lakota way, the mother gives birth alone.

The baby — who was the first (and perhaps only?) baby born at a Standing Rock camp — was named Mni Wiconi.

P.S. An earlier Native American protest in the Dakotas may have been behind the debut of the name Morningstar in 1973…

Sources:

Image: Adapted from Sacred Stone Camp North Dakota (29167637232) by Tony Webster under CC BY-SA 2.0.