IT wasn't the least bit surprising celebrity lovers Paula Yates and Michael Hutchence gave their new baby daughter a name guaranteed to cause ridicule in the playground. Heavenly Hiraani Tiger Lily was born this week but, exotic as the name might at first appear, it's really fairly predictable. The child's siblings are, after all, Peaches Blossom, Fifi Trixibelle and Pixie and so poor Heavenly (or Hev to her friends) would presumably have felt a bit out of things around the breakfast table if she had been called plain Jane.
It's also a bit predictable because place names have been in for quite a while now all Paula and Mick have done is gone one step up and called the mite after the ultimate place.
You'll note, by the way, that the parents have perfectly ordinary names and they turned out to be raving exhibitionists. So if the opposite is true, their daughter is likely to be a mousey nerd with a mortifying name that she spends her entire life trying to live up to.
If you're naming your baby, skip the baby name books and whip out an atlas. In the more pretentious parts of south Dublin, Persia has overtaken India as the exotic name of choice (admit it, "Howarya Persia?" does have a certain ring to it) Can you imagine how bizarre school roll calls are going to sound? In my day having seven Marys in the class caused confusion, but will any classroom be big enough for those multiples of subcontinents?
In America the "in" names for babies this year are Montana and Dakota but places further afield are still in vogue. Even ex-model Christie Brinkley, who did the entirely sensible thing and called her new baby Jack, couldn't resist adding Paris as his second name.
Irish place names have always been popular among Irish Americans and we've all had a good snigger over their penchant for calling children Shannon and Kerry (note, never Limerick or Kinnegad) but the fashion is spreading. Uber babe Pamela Anderson's baby son is called Brandon (catchier than Lugnaquillia) and Kim Bassinger and Alec Baldwin went the whole hog and called their child Ireland.