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people who were named for people well known at the time of their birth
Actresses Shirley MacLaine and Shirley Jones (for Shirley Temple).Actress Jaclyn Bernstein (for Jaclyn Smith of Charlie's Angels).Any others?
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Selena Gomez was named after Tejano singer Selena Quintanilla, who was super popular in her home state of Texas.
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This may not quite qualify, as neither of these people were particularly only well-known at the time of my grandchildren's birth, but my grandson Abraham (nn Bram) was kind of sort of named after Abraham Lincoln and my granddaughter Lucille (nn Lucy) was kind of sort of named after Lucille Ball. "Kind of sort of" means that the name was loved in any case, but the fact that Lincoln and Ball bore the names was an additional factor in their favor.
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Both my old boyfriends were named after pop figures. Beau was named after a boxer named Bobo or something, and Brian (mn Keith) was named after the singer Brian Keith. Maybe it was a thing in the 70s.
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My mother really wanted to name me Streisand. Not Barbra. Streisand. Her pitch to my father was that they could call me "Sandy".
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Not sure how accurate it is but Nameberry did a feature on this:https://nameberry.com/blog/celebrity-baby-names-starbabies-honoring-past-celebs
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Actually...Shirley MacLaine and Shirley Jones were both born early in 1934, before Shirley Temple’s first feature film premiered (May 1934). The former two Shirleys were named that for the same reason Shirley Temple was: it was a popular name at the time.
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Meant to be under OPSort of similar, but the name Alma took off in the 19th century because of the Crimean War Battle of the Alma. There's also a bunch of British births from World War I named Ypres, Sommes, etc. though sometimes that's not merely because of the newsworthiness of the battle but because their father had died or been wounded there.

This message was edited 7/14/2020, 8:28 AM

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My mother was a history and style nut and named me after Wallis Simpson. She was not popular when I was born, I am not that old. I've heard of John Lennon being named after Winston Churchill.
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John Lennon, mn Winston after the wartime Prime Minister
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Dustin HoffmanDustin Hoffman was named after stage and silent screen actor Dustin Farnum.
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