Nameberry.com editors Pamela Satran and Linda Rosenkrantz — who penned the books Baby Name Bible and Beyond Ava & Aiden — are blogging for UsMagazine.com about why celebs choose the names they do, and what they mean.
Congratulations are in order for Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz, who welcomed son Egypt Dauode Dean on Oct. 15!
BLOG: Read more "What's in a Name?" columns
Egypt is of course a place name that is actually a Greek form of an ancient name for the country, "Hwt-ka-Ptah," which means "temple for Ka of Ptah" — Ptah being an early Egyptian god. The Greeks not surprisingly had trouble pronouncing this and so recast the name as Aegyptus, referred to by Homer.
Egypt was first used as a name in this country, at least as far as anyone knows, by Little Egypt, who practically invented exotic dancing at the end of the 19th century. Though place names from Paris to China have been fashionable for the past few decades, Egypt is one of the lesser traveled choices.
A few other celebrity babies with place names are David and Victoria Beckham's son Brooklyn, Drea De Matteo's daughter Alabama, and LeeLee Sobieski's daughter Louisianna Ray.
Ironically enough, many Egyptians today call their own country Misr, an Arabic name that means simply "country."
Dauode is an Arabic form of the Hebrew David, which means "beloved." The usual Arabic spelling of the name is Daoud — but this couple seems to have a taste for changing up names.
Kasseem Dean is Beatz's real name. Interesting too that both Beatz and Keys use different names than they were born with — she was originally Alicia Cook.
