Sunday, 17 July 2016

Busy Philipps gets real about Birdie and Cricket's names

by

Sara McGinnis

posted in Celebrities

It's hard not to wonder what the stories are behind Busy Philipps' baby name picks. Although the actress has previously opened up about where she and husband Mark Silverstein came up with 7-year-old Birdie and 3-year-old Cricket's names, the star's own name influenced her choices as well.

"I did know that when we named them, I wanted to make sure that if we had a nickname that we wanted to call them, that we just name them that nickname. Because that’s what I dealt with my whole life," the 37-year-old recently explained to Hollywood Life.

"Busy is a nickname for Elizabeth. It was the bane of my existence growing up that I would always have to explain to people, ‘Yes I know it says my name is Elizabeth, but I go by Busy.’ And people would go well that’s weird. It was a constant conversation that I had to have.”

Busy Phillips Cricket Birdie

Busy Phillips, who is pictured here with fellow actress and longtime friend Michelle Williams, says Mark actually chose the names, because she, "found there to be too much pressure in naming my own children, and with a name like Busy, what was I going to do?"

After welcoming Birdie (who is named after the late Lady Bird Johnson), a name which the couple felt they "nailed," they felt a bit unsure on what her sibling ought to be called.

"And then when we were having our second kid, that’s a hard name to follow. Because you can’t just name your second kid Linda. You have to give her her own unique take on a name. We had a lot of names on our list. My husband and Birdie were really pushing for Cricket the whole time. They loved it."

In a roundabout way I get how Busy's experience of growing up with a certain kind of name influenced her choices as a mother -- but I went the opposite route. Even though I disliked that Sara didn't have any obvious nicknames as a kid, I ended up choosing names for my kids that don't lend themselves easily to nicknames either. My husband also goes by his full name.

In hindsight it's a bit odd that I wanted a name with nicknames as a kid and then put my kids in the exact spot I was in, but now I prefer their name to just be their name -- which ultimately is the same thing Busy wanted.

Did your own name influence what names you chose for your children? How so?

Photo: PR Photos

 

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