What’s in a Name? Harlow Winter Kate Madden

So I’ve been doing some research to find out about the name Harlow. It’s a pretty rare name and has never been in the top 1,000 names for either boys or girls. However, little Harlow Madden is the second Harlow to hit Hollywood–Patricia Arquette named her baby girl Harlow in 2003 and Joely Fisher named her girl True Harlow in 2006.

Harlow is reminiscent of classis Hollywood, it being the name of 1930s starlet Jean Harlow. While I have no idea whether or not that’s why Nicole Richie and Joel Madden named their baby Harlow, it’s a baby name trend, especially in Hollywood. Pam Strand, co-author of The Baby Name Bible told US Magazine that “there’s a huge trend, especially among young Hollywood, to honor Classic Hollywood with names.”

Other examples of Classic Hollywood names reappearing in Hollywood today include Reese Withersoon and Ryan Phillippe and Jason Priestley and Naomi Lowde named their daughters Ava (Ava Gardner); Greg Kinnear and wife Helen Labdon have a daughter named Audrey (Audrey Hepburn) and Kevin Nealon and wife Susan Yeagley named their son Gable (Clark Gable).

It also follows the current trend of naming girls traditional surnames–Harley, Harper, Emerson, Aniston, Bailey and Dexter are all similar examples.

Harlow is traditionally an English boys’ name meaning “From The Mound Of The People.”

I hope that when Nicole and Joel bring little Harlow out in public, they explain why they chose such a unique name for their child!

Image from Jeff Vespa/WireImage.com via Us Magazine