Sean Penn is among the celebrities out there who believe naming your children after your favorite people and things is a brilliant route to go.
His son Hopper, for instance, was named after Sean’s friend Dennis Hopper — but that wasn’t the only name on the short list before his birth.
Take a look at an interview the 22-year-old son of Sean Penn and Robin Wright recently gave while promoting his dad’s movie, The Last Face, which Hopper has a role in…
Hopper on living in Los Angeles: “L.A., unfortunately. I hate almost everything about it. I don’t fit well there, with the people. It’s very hard to find a genuine person in L.A. Also, I’m the big fan of rain and overcast weather. So it’s either Seattle or New York for me.”
How he started acting: “Two and a half years ago, my dad was working on his movie called The Last Face, and I asked if I could PA for it. He said, “No, you’re going to act in it.” I said no, because I’m very shy; I didn’t know how to act. He said, “Well, you’ll get paid.” So I was like, “I’m onboard.” After the first day, I fell in love with it.
On if he worries about measuring up to his parents: “My dad is a really good actor, and there are a lot of sh-tty actors, and I definitely think I’m one of them.”
On his unique name: “It has to do with Dennis Hopper; my dad was friendly with him and idolized him. My dad wanted to name me Steak, the food, because he loves it so much. But my mom was never going to go for it. What they told me is that I hopped in her stomach, I didn’t kick, so they went with that.”
Steak Hopper is pictured here with his father, and his 25-year-old sister Dylan.
Can we just give thanks for Robin’s clear thinking for a moment? I try hard to have an open mind about different names, but I can’t even imagine growing up with the name Steak. It’s not as though there’s even some great story behind the name — it’s just his dad’s favorite food!
Not to mention, how awkward would it be if Steak decided to become a vegetarian? Most people I know who avoid meat can’t stand the thought of a steak.
What would your kids’ names be if you had followed Sean Penn’s baby-naming approach?
Tell us!Photos: Matt Baron/BEI/Shutterstock
More stars share the stories behind their unusual baby name picks:
“When we were first pregnant, her daddy basically just said, ‘If it’s a girl I think her name should be Apple.’ It sounded so sweet, and it conjures such a lovely picture for me – you know, apples are so sweet and they’re wholesome, and it’s biblical.” ~ Gwyneth Paltrow on Apple, her daughter with ex-husband Chris Martin (REX USA)
"It's sort of an abbreviation of 'COurtney COx' ... 'CoCo.'" ~ David Arquette on Coco, his daughter with ex-wife Courteney Cox (REX USA)
"A friend of mine when I was younger was nicknamed Bear and I just had always really loved it. And he was very much a bear. He was everyone’s shoulder to cry on he was a big bear hug, he was a great figure in my life and I just had always remembered him and so that’s where it came from.... Bear’s second name is Blaze because my husband and I met in a house fire basically. The house burned down and we survived. But we wanted something of the fire and so Blaze was the name that we came up with." ~ Kate Winslet on son Bear Blaze (INFphoto.com)
“North is the most high. There is nothing higher than North…. Nothing is more special than North. Kim keeps saying, ‘She is our North Star.’” ~ Grandma Kris Jenner explains Kim Kardashian and Kanye West's baby name pick, North West (REX USA)
“She didn’t have a name for a week, we were sort of panicking. We had these other, more normal names picked out and none of them suited her. [My husband Marc Silverstein] just loved that name [Cricket]. He’s like, 'Cricket is the coolest girl in school. She’s like the camp counselor that you have a crush on.'" ~ Busy Philipps on daughter Cricket Pearl (PR Photos)
''[My daughter Maya] came up with the best excuse, [which] was that I probably wouldn't get to have any more children, so I just put every name I liked into [Luna's]. We call her Luna, so she's lucky that way. And then the rest, she can name all her own children all these interesting names. Proud, Catholic, observant!" ~ Uma Thurman on daughter Rosalind Arusha Arkadina Altalune Florence, who goes by the nickname Luna (PR Photos)
“When I delivered Haven she was born still inside the amniotic sac, which is rare. When I was in recovery we still hadn’t chosen her name. [My husband] Cash picked her up and said she came into the world in her ‘safe haven’ and it clicked right then for both of us." ~ Jessica Alba on daughter Haven Garner (REX USA)
"Seven - a lot of people assume seven is my shirt number. Part of it is but that was not the main reason. It symbolises spiritual perfection, the seven wonders of the world, seven colours of the rainbow and in many countries around the world it is regarded as lucky." ~ David Beckham on daughter Harper Seven (REX USA)
"The world is blue at its edges and in its depths. This blue is the light that got lost. Light at the end blue end of the spectrum does not travel the whole distance from the sun to us.... The sky is blue for the same reason, but the blue at the horizon, the blue of the land that seems to be dissolving into the sky, is a deeper, dreamier, melancholy blue, the blue at the farthest reaches of the places where you see for miles, the blue of distance. This light does not touch us, does not travel the whole distance, the light that gets lost, gives us the beauty of the world, so much of which is in the color blue." ~ Beyonce, mom to Blue Ivy, quoted this passage from Rebecca Solnit's 2005 novel, A Field Guide to Getting Lost. "Ivy" is thought to refer to IV, the roman numeral 4, a number special to Bey and Jay-Z. They wed on 04/04, were both born on the fourth day of the month, she has the number tattooed on her ring finger and has an album titled "4" as well. (INFphotos.com)
“We had the name before we had the baby. My husband just turned to me one night and said, ‘Story Elias Elfman,’ and I said, ‘Done—there’s nothing better than a great story.’” ~ Jenna Elfman on son Story Elias (INFphoto.com)
"I have always loved the name Rainbow. There was a girl in my school a few years younger than me named Rainbow and I was so envious of her name because it was so pretty and unusual. She was a perfectly normal, well-adjusted, sporty girl, by the way, so I'm not worried about my daughter being 'traumatized' by having an unusual name." ~ Holly Madison on daughter Rainbow Aurora (INFphoto.com)
"We wanted a word not a name, so my boyfriend read through the dictionary three or four times. We were going to call him Science, but thought it might get shortened to Sci, as in Simon." ~ Shannyn Sossamon on her son Audio Science
“Lula RosyLea decided to arrive at tea time. RosyLea is cockney rhyming slang in London for ‘cup of tea’ and the name Lula comes from Gene Vincent‘s song ‘Be-Bop-A-Lula.'" ~ Bryan Adams on daughter Lula RosyLea (PR Photos)
“The Jungle Book was something that me and Ashlee bonded over. It’s a cool name.... We came up with the idea Bronx. We’ve been throwing ideas back and forth a while. It’s kind of cool to just leave the narrative what it is. I don’t think anyone really has the real story.” ~ Pete Wentz on Bronx Mowgli, his son with ex-wife Ashlee Simpson (REX USA)
“The name Ever is a Scottish boy’s name. [My partner] Paul [Anderson] has Scottish blood in him (not to mention two tartans in his family!) so we wanted to give her a name that reflected her ‘Celtic’ roots.... [Gabo is] a mixture of my parents names! The first two letters are after my mom’s first name, Galina and the last two letters are after my dad’s first name Bogie!” ~ Mila Jovovich on daughter Ever Gabo (PR Photos)
"It's a family name, and I liked having a boy's name." ~ Blake Lively on James, her daughter with husband Ryan Reynolds (REX USA)
"I think it’s pretty cruel to give a kid a name that others are going to have. I think it’s very important to have a unique name within any group you’re likely to be in..... I love the name Moxie, I love that’s it’s a purely American word, and those are rare, and I love that it stands for old fashioned spunk and energy. [My wife Emily Zolten] pushed for her middle name, CrimeFighter because [she] doesn’t have a middle name and thinks middle names are stupid. So, it’s just a joke. When she gets pulled over by the police she can show her license and say, ‘We’re on the same side, officer, my middle name is CrimeFighter.'" ~ Penn Jillette on daughter Moxie Crimefighter (PR Photos)
“I had to have something that combats against the Flowers." ~ Singer Brandon Flowers on son Gunner Flowers (PR Photos)
"The top tier of Mariah’s New York City apartment is called the Moroccan Room, because of the Moroccan-inspired decor. It’s also the place where Nick [Cannon] proposed to his wife, overlooking Manhattan!... [Marilyn Monroe] has been an inspiration to Mariah her whole life." ~ A statement on Mariah Carey's web site explains her twins' names, Morrocan and Monroe (REX USA)
"It's nothing shocking and nothing you'll have to add to the dictionary. Still, when people hear it they'll know why." ~ Jessica Simpson on daughter Maxwell Drew. Maxwell is her husband's grandmother's surname, and Drew is her mother's surname. (REX USA)
