Baby born at restaurant, named after restaurant

seafood

In April of 2024, Alyse Sparkman of Michigan began experiencing contractions, so she and her husband Sean went to the hospital.

They were sent home after doctors decided that Alyse wasn’t in active labor.

On the way back, Alyse and Sean stopped to eat at a restaurant called at Lily’s Seafood Grill and Brewery.

While Alyse was chewing her first bite of food, her water broke.

Just a few minutes later, she gave birth to a baby girl.

The couple had planned to name their daughter Penelope Danielle, but her unusual birthplace inspired them to change the middle name to Lily.

Penelope’s two older brothers are named Logan and Quill.

Sources:

Image: Adapted from Fish and chips (crop) by Thomas Gun under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Baby name story: Cutch

Baseball player Andrew McCutchen
Andrew McCutchen

In July of 2024, Pittsburgh Pirates fans Jordan and Eevanna Lundquist welcomed their third child, a baby boy.

His name? Cutch, in honor of Pirates player Andrew “Cutch” McCutchen.

The following month, Cutch-the-ballplayer and Cutch-the-baby met at PNC Park, on the day of a home game against the Cincinnati Reds.

In a video recorded just before the meeting, McCutchen said: “I’ve never known another human being [named] Cutch, besides myself.”

Sources:

Image: Adapted from Andrew McCutchen, April 2014 by Blackngold29 under CC0 1.0.

Baby name story: Phila

Philadelphia City Hall
Philadelphia City Hall

A few weeks ago I read an article about first-generation Cambodian-American chef Phila (pronounced pee-LAH) Lorn, who runs a restaurant called Mawn (Khmer for “chicken”) in Philadelphia.

Where did Chef Phila’s first name come from?

“[H]is parents and siblings came to Philadelphia as refugees in 1985 after surviving the war in Cambodia.” As the first family member born in the U.S., he was named Phila — “broken English for Philadelphia.”

Not long after the article came out, Phila Lorn won the 2025 James Beard Award for Emerging Chef.

Sources:

Image: Adapted from City hall Philadelphia by R. Hood Photography under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Baby name story: Emdiella

Record of Emdiella Whiskerd's christening in 1852
Emdiella Whiskerd

A baby girl born in 1852 to William and Sarah Whiskerd of Norfolk, England, was given the unusual name Emdiella.

Forty years later, a grandchild of the vicar who performed Emdiella’s baptism wrote a letter to the editor of the the London newspaper The Standard. Here’s what it said:

A child (a girl) was brought for baptism to my grandfather. When asked the name, the parent, to his surprise, replied, “Emdiella.” “There is no such name,” said my grandfather. “Oh, yes, sir, there is; we saw it in a book,” replied the woman. My grandfather at the time did not like to inquire further, but it turned out that she had found in an old grammar the four liquid letters, L.M.N.R., and had confused them into M.D.L.R. The child was, however, christened “Emdiella.”

Her name is spelled “Emdeeler” in both the marriage register (1873) and the death register (1915).

(Here are dozens of other names spelled with the names of letters, if you’re interested.)

Sources:

Image: Baptismal record of Emdiella Whiskerd