Hugh Hefner’s former girlfriend Holly Madison welcomed a baby girl last week.
The dad isn’t Hef, though — it’s Holly’s current boyfriend, Pasquale Rotella.
And the baby’s name? Rainbow Aurora Rotella.
Not long after the name was announced, Holly apparently felt she had to start defending it:
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.
There are a lot of smug haters out there who bag on my choice of a name, but I don’t care about what they think. I want my daughter to be proud of who she is and learn to speak up and stand up for herself at a young age. I spent most of my life being a people-pleaser who worried about what other people thought or thought was cool and I don’t want that for her.
(This reasoning reminds me of Joel Madden’s reasoning behind the baby name Sparrow: “I wanted to give him a name that he’s going to have to stand up for.”)
What are your thoughts on the baby name Rainbow?
Update, October 2020: Rainbow more than doubled in usage in the SSA data back in 2013, likely thanks to celebrity baby Rainbow.
- 2014: 10 baby girls named Rainbow
- 2013: 16 baby girls named Rainbow
- 2012: 7 baby girls named Rainbow
- 2011: 10 baby girls named Rainbow
Source: Madison, Holly. “On My Baby’s Name.” Celebuzz 8 Mar. 2013.