Katie Holmes now refers to Suri as “Sara” in public: good idea or strange?

Katie Holmes

Here are some photos of Katie Holmes and Suri Cruise arriving at the Music Box theater (where Dead Accounts is playing) on Saturday evening. It must not go unnoticed that Suri has been dutifully wearing a coat ever since Katie officially took over the “full legal custody” parenting reins. Suri’s even walking on her own a great deal when she’s not hiding her face from the everpresent photogs. A lot of people complain about how Katie carries Suri in a lot of these pap photos, but it’s a much better alternative than, say, letting her be blinded by the flashbulbs and walking into a stop sign, no? Or out into NYC traffic. Just saying. This little girl does love her grannysmith apples though.

Katie Holmes

A new story in this week’s In Touch would have us believe that Katie has bestowed a new name upon Suri, but it’s not nearly as nefarious as it sounds. Instead, Katie now calls Suri “Sara” in public for security purposes, which makes sense because Suri isn’t exactly one of the countless “Avas” that run amuck through celeb and non-celeb name circles these days. Here are the details:

In Touch has learned that Katie Holmes has a new name for her daughter Suri.

A source close to Katie explains that she’s been calling Suri “Sara” in public “so as not to attract attention.”

The 6-year-old with the unique — and internationally recognizable — moniker is trying to avoid “privacy issues,” the source further tells In Touch. “Everyone in the world knows Suri Cruise, so if Katie or a babysitter says, ‘Suri,’ people immediately look to find her.”

Katie was recently overheard referring to her daughter as “Sara” to her Dead Accounts co-stars at rehearsals and luckily, the first-grader seems to love her other name! In August, Suri was seen at a Build-A-Bear Workshop requesting that her stuffed animal be named “Sara” — and she even specified no h so she and the doll would have the same number of letters in their names.

The source says the high-security measure taken to shelter Suri is “no different than celebrities checking into hotels under a different name.”

[From In Touch Weekly]

I personally think that it’s a great idea to call Suri by a different name in this regard. Tom will probably be spooked by it because he’ll think Katie’s just taking a dig at the name he likely picked out for her (because Tom was in charge of everything in the relationship), but Suri is actually a dimunitive name of Sara, so it makes sense as an alias. It’s certainly better than Cage Hunt for crying out loud.

Earlier in the day, Katie was out by herself and showed off some new fug booties, this time in black. I’m not complaining because Katie loves her booties, but as for this dress … just no.

Katie Holmes

Katie Holmes

Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet

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65 Responses to “Katie Holmes now refers to Suri as “Sara” in public: good idea or strange?”

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  1. The Wizz says:

    I’d be more worried about that bum bag looking thing she’s wearing.

  2. lin234 says:

    I still can’t believe she’s still going around as a fashion designer. That jean jacket needs to be buried in the 90’s where it belongs and she forgot her leggings in those last two pics.

    She really needs Suri/Sara to dress her. Her daughter always has the cutest outfits but Katie can’t EVER put together a decent outfit for herself it seems.

  3. Riana says:

    Diminutive or not, odds are Suri wouldn’t be Suri if not for Tom.

    Katie seems like the type of woman who’d have loved to have a daughter named Sara or Emily, that type. Something simple, no fancy spelling.

    • T.C. says:

      You just know Tom Cruise chose that Suri name. Just like he changed Katie’s name to Kate when they were married. I don’t believe the Sara is a code name, I think Katie is calling her now by the name she originally wanted for her daughter. Take that TC.

      • CF98 says:

        Wouldn’t surprise me if Katie changed Suri’s name to Sara Holmes later on…

      • The Original Genevieve says:

        I’m totally a day late (three, to be exact) and a dollar short in response to this post, but I just HAD to comment!

        ITA w/ this comment 1 million percent. YES!! “Suri” to “Sara” is a fabulous idea. Agreed, the next brilliant move would be to change her last name to Holmes. Tom’s ego would despise that, but hey- Suri’s already a SP, RIGHT? And how many weeks is it now that the GMD hasn’t laid eyes on his little girl?

        A huge poke at Tommygirl, and just one more small step in the normalization of Suri (Sara!) Cruise. 😀

    • Ally8 says:

      I thought the story was that it was Suri for Surrey, L. Ron’s birthplace in England.

  4. Bowers says:

    The fashion designer label kinda gets me too. I think a lot more of Katie Holmes for leaving whatshisname but I think she looks as if she put on her clothes in the dark.

    • MnFinn says:

      During childhood, I bet Katie was an adorable girly version of Pigpen.

      I kind of admire her for being somewhat sloppy when she isn’t doing professional appearances because I think it means she’s not that enamored with herself.

  5. RocketMerry says:

    The dress is cute but far too short.

    • poppy says:

      love the dress, looks like smocked silk. agree though, too short. have them make you a longer version katie!
      how is she a fashion designer people are supposed to pay attention to? or was that part pf the escape plan so now she can retire?

    • Hautie says:

      I like to mention I was just in Neiman’s and these are all the rage. Dresses that are basically blouses.

      And they are suppose to wore with a belt!

      Seriously, they are way too short to be wore without some kind of pants.

      But they are pushing them are “dresses”. And for the taller girls!

      • apsutter says:

        I do not understand the whole dresses 1 inch from my crotch type of thing. The only time I will wear a shorter dress like that is if I’m wearing flashy/fancy tights or when it’s summer and I have my bathing suit underneath it. Maybe some girls can rock it but I’m a white girl with a donk so that dress would look obscene on me.

  6. someone says:

    I don’t get the dress – it looks more like a shirt and she forgot the pants?? If Suri likes being called Sara then it’s all cool. But saying it is for security reasons – that seems strange to claim if Katie is calling her Sara to her fellow cast members. Using it in a non-public situation like the theater makes it sound like they are calling her Sara everywhere, not just for security.

  7. Lee says:

    I love Suri’s blue coat. Her whole outfit, with the white tights, is so adorable. She needs to share her stylist with her mom.

  8. gogoGorilla says:

    I think it makes sense from a security context, but also… don’t a lot of parents do this? I have two boys and over time we have morphed their names in a couple of ways so they have nicknames that are sort-of-but-not-really their actual names.

    I also do this with cats. 🙂

  9. OhMyMy says:

    Oh look….she got photobombed by Justin Beiber in that last pic. How cool is that?

  10. Flim says:

    The look on everyone’s faces behind her–can you imagine people staring at you like that everywhere you go? That vacant awe and expectation? None for me, thanks.

    • gg says:

      I was just thinking, look at the gawking lugs on the sidewalk. They look stupid.

      • Pandy says:

        I know, right? Like that vacant woman can save their world somehow … still no liking for her. Wonder if she’s sorry for the “trade up” in fame.

  11. lboogie2012 says:

    Are we still counting the number of days that it has been since Tom has seen Suri? Maybe he will show up by Christmas.

  12. Ali says:

    Calling your child another name is just plain weird.

  13. mln76 says:

    This situation is so weird I have to wonder if Tom lost all but limited visitation,if he considers Katie (and therefore Suri a suppresive person) or if he ever had parental rights in the first place.

    • Miss T says:

      Personally, I’d go with the first option. I think Tom would see Suri if he could, even if it’s just for publicity to show everyone what a great dad he is. So I believe he hasn’t seen Suri much because the custody agreement barely gives him any visitation. I think he basically agreed to give Katie something like 95% of physical custody in order to avoid a court battle that would expose his secrets.

  14. The Original Mia says:

    I thought we’d heard before that Suri liked to be called Sara. I don’t see any difference from Brad & Angie calling Shiloh “John”.

  15. serena says:

    I love the dress but there are some problems : A) the way she carries her little bag -wrong B) she should have worn tights or leggins under, thighs are not her strength.

  16. Cam S says:

    This is funny to me because my Mom named me after an exotic flower yet would never say my name correctly. My Stepfather used to correct her all the time. She would say she gave birth to me so she can call me what she wanted no matter what the name on my birth certificate said. Now that she’s gone I miss her mispronouncing my name and realize it was her way of just giving me a nickname.

    Maybe this is Katie’s nickname for Suri?

  17. watcherfan says:

    It could be for security reasons or Suri just is going through a “name phase”. For a week my 4 year old insisted on being called Faline Running Deer.

    • Lem says:

      My mil owns a hair salon. Unbeknownst to me my daughter, when very young, would tell the little old ladies the when we would visit Grandma that her name was Ariel.
      It took 3 old ladies stopping me in public and telling me how sweet Ariel was before I figured out what was going on. It was however totally creepy.
      Lol – Faline Running Deer – that’s funny!

  18. apsutter says:

    Granny Smiths are my favorite kind of apple too. All the other kinds are just too mushy and I hate the texture. I think it’s cute and smart of her too call her sara if need be. I like Suri’s little outfit but that top pic is just highlighting Katie’s bad legs. If I were Katie I would constantly be wearing long trousers and even high waisted ones. She certainly has the body for nice pantsuits and she would look a hell of a lot better than she does now.

  19. ladybert62 says:

    I never liked the name Suri – I like Sara better – but it should be up to the child since she is old enough to understand – let her decide what she wants to be called.

    Why does Ms. Holmes always look so messy and dirty when she is seen in public alone.

    She should let that child walk – if the paps bother her, explain it to her and have her attempt to deal with it – give her sunglasses etc. The paps are not leaving. Princess Diana seemed to deal with it and trained her sons to deal with it also. (I am not saying Holmes is like Diana, just that the situation can be controlled.)

    • Kate (newer one) says:

      Diana didn’t deal with it. There is recorded footage of her screaming at the paps that “you make my life hell”, the Queen asked the press to back off her less than a year into the marriage, her brother’s speech at the funeral said she was “the most hunted person of the modern age” and that she talked endlessly about escaping somewhere away from the paps. Her son has made it plain that he loathes the press and barely stands to co-operate with them (and sneak photographers recently took shots of his wife that would earn any random punter jail time in England), a couple of months before she died a Times magazine article on the paps harassing her ended with the line, “if this continues, someone will die, and it may not be a paparazzo” and then she did indeed die, in a tunnel with a drunk driver trying to outrun a bunch of them. I’m not sure how you could “deal with it” less.

      And no small child should be surrounded by a forest of screaming adults, feet taller, pushing, shoving and harassing. She’s scared and very small and it’s her mother’s job to comfort her and make her feel safe in a very weird situation. I don’t get how leaving her to walk through that is somehow better for her than being comforted. Why? Why would you choose to do that?

      The bottom line is that this is legalised stalking, and when small kids are involved I don’t think it should be legal. I think pap shots of celebrities when with their kids are just wrong, and to blame the kids for wanting consolation is really getting at the wrong target.

  20. Me says:

    It’s bizarre, and now she’s going to have to think of a new security nickname cause we are onto the ‘Sara’ thing. Please. People recognize Katie and Suri by sight, not by hearing Katie yell “Sur!” all over NYC. The whole thing is bizarre. Maybe she’s changing Suri’s name a la Meg Ryan. She adopted a daughter, named her, then re-named her when she was a couple of years old. Charlotte to Daisy or something? Weird.
    This is going to be really bitchy, but I have to say Katie is so pigeon toed it drives me insane!

  21. Bodhi says:

    Suri is a diminutive of Sara? I read the link & saw the cite, but it sounds like a bunch of crap to me. I bet Tom named her & Katie prefers Sara. Suri is ok, I guess, but it still sounds like a made up look at me name. I wouldn’t be surprised if Katie changes her name legally

    • Elizabeth says:

      Love the comment “made up look at me name”. There are so many of those now and they bug the heck out of me. A friend of mine named her eldest child Jordan in the ’70’s when it was a very unusual name. Poor kid got so tired of repeating it because no one had heard it before (“what was that? what’s your name again?”). One day when she was four, she insisted on my family calling her Cinderella instead. At least it was her choice and not her parents’.

    • CF98 says:

      Suri is a common name in India so it may be strange in the states but in India or the Middle East its not.

    • OzJade says:

      I was named Jade in the early 70s when no-one had heard it (after Bianca & Mick Jagger’s daughter who was born around the same time). My sister got called Skye. We were constantly asked if our mother was a hippie. I remember when I was about 5 wanting to be called Gary because I liked riding bmx and boys games and was always told that little girls didn’t do that…Age brings perspective and also nearly every girl born now has Jade or a variation, or as a middle name

      • Bodhi says:

        I love Jade, both the name & the stone, but I don’t know a single person who named a child any iteration of it.

        I know & understand that Suri is a common name in the Middle East &/or India, but it isn’t in the US. I’m not trying to invalidate or denigrate the name at all, but it is quite unusual here. I am all about naming your kids whatever the heck you want, but there is definitely parental hubris involved in the naming process (I say this as a mom). They didn’t give her the name based on cultural heritage. And, given all the flack that celebs get for giving their kids “weird” names, I don’t think that TomKat should be given a pass.

  22. OhDear says:

    Weird, especially since Tom kept on calling her Kate instead of Katie. Though as others said, there could be a legitimate reason.

  23. Saskia says:

    I have a pretty unusual name myself, and for about six months in third grade I tried to make everyone call me Katie instead of Saskia. I just wanted a “normal” name instead of something that stands out so much. Now of course I like the fact that I almost never have to deal with name mix-ups like “normal” people do, but kids are dumb and weird. They do all sorts of crazy things for their own kid reasons. 99% of the time it’s no big deal and the kid will let it go when they decide they’re ready.

    • Bodhi says:

      I’m Alexandra, but I’ve been Sasha since birth. I insisted on being called Alex in HS, which caused a ton of confusion, since my dad is also Alex, lol! I LOVE Saskia &, while I love my name, I kinda wish my folks had been a *little* more fun when they battled over my nickname!

  24. frankly says:

    I have one daughter who insisted on being called Zena for about 8 mos. when she was 5-6 and the other one insisted on Leesha, because she was a rock star and needed a rock star name. They were adamant. Neither of which are anything close to their given names. I don’t think it’s all that weird for kids to do that – she probably just has a good imagination and any security stuff is just a bonus.

  25. lucy2 says:

    I can see that making sense for security out in public, because as soon as someone says “Suri” everyone knows who they’re talking about. But to use it when talking with coworkers seems a bit odd.

    I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if Katie was starting to attempt to change her name.

  26. Francesca says:

    Katie, can you not just dress simply and mostly in slacks? Oh I hate seeing her thick legs sticking out. It’s one thing to do that at home, another when you know 100 pictures are being taken…

    • apsutter says:

      Yup….she would look so KILLER if she just got some really great tailored pantsuits and started wearing dressy slacks! She has the perfect body for it and she’d look much more professional and adult. She’s also look great in some high waisted trousers.

  27. Sara says:

    há!!!!!! that’s my name!

  28. blonde on the dock says:

    She looks like hell and her styling is atrocious. Renaming her daughter is strange to me. I wonder sometimes if she doesn’t suffer from depression.

  29. stephanie says:

    oh my gosh, those dresses. someone help her. she’s such a beautiful woman, she’s got fabulous legs. she just needs to be rescued from herself.

    • Wren says:

      I have a question, in Australia Sara is pronounced differently to Sarah. Saah-ra vs Seh-ra. Is it the same in the US or are both pronounced Seh-ra?

      • Angela says:

        They’re pronounced identically in the U.S., as far as I know (and I know a lot of Sarahs/Saras)

  30. boo says:

    I actually love that dress. Just not on her. That is made for an Olson twin or some other petit girl.

  31. Claire says:

    I wish Tim Gunn would weigh in on her smocked tunic thingy.

  32. Heather M says:

    My ex was high profile and had a famous first name, and when I would say it people would stop and look. He would sometimes scold me, “don’t say my name!” especially when we were in his home town, where he was especially well known, so this makes sense to me…Of course, we were not followed by paparazzi 24/7, so I can imagine that a famous name is not all that draws attention to Katie and Suri…

  33. Journey says:

    i’m a fan of unusual names– since mine is common as dirt– but i can completely understand katie’s reasoning. and not just for security reasons. i’m sure that tommy had a reason for naming her suri, like maybe in cos-ese it means, “big magnificent tom’s beautiful little golden flower” or something. i mean, if you’d heard tommy gushing for years about his “big magnificent tom’s beautiful little golden flower” you’d probably want to call her something else as well!

  34. RdyfrmycloseupmrDvlle says:

    Holy Moly this woman really does not care when she looks like s%it. Wow, she couldnt even be bothered to comb her hair and dab on a little lipstick?
    Geez, as my Mother used to say if I ever showed a naked face…”Lets put on a little pink lipstick and blush….look a little friendly.”
    I was a single Mom too and although its hard, yes, but I always managed to look put together and wear make up…even when I was going through the worst of times for my own sence of dignity and pride.
    This girl has all the money in the world….whats her excuse now that she runs around allowing herself to look like death warmed over?? And the micro dress? No, dear, you have stumpy legs like a female bodybuilder.

  35. Amy says:

    Suri is wearing a coat! This is the first time I’ve seen this! I feel like this hasn’t been commented on enough. We finally have confirmation Tom was the one to let her run free and do whatever she wanted. I remember this site was always after Katie to get Suri to wear a coat.

    And calling Suri Sara–if this is true, that makes sense so as not to attract attention in public. I’m not a fan of this name mostly because it sounds like an Americanized pronunciation of the word “mouse” in French (which is spelled souris).

  36. Deeana says:

    Katie’s hair doesn’t just look like it needs to be combed, it looks like it needs to be washed also!

    As for the name, how do we know a child or two at the new school didn’t mistake “Suri” for “Sara” and the child liked the new version?

  37. Snowpea says:

    Katie, dear, if you’re reading PLEASE for the love of god buy some lovely tailored wide leg trousers and a nice tan boot to go with them.

    You have legs like tree trunks and when you wear those short shift dresses you look very unkempt.

    Oh and Katie dear, your hair could do with a good wash and conditioning treatment on those split ends.

  38. jani says:

    Maybe since Suri started to go to a normal (non-CO$)school, she decided that she wanted a name that was more common there so that she could blend in with the other kids. When I entered kindergarten, I waged a 6 month campaign to get everyone to call me Ann. Nobody bought it. My dad’s nickname for me was Toodles.