Jennifer Love Hewitt, 36, and her husband of two years, Brian Hallisay, also 36, just welcomed their second baby. The couple had a son whom they named Atticus James. Atticus joins his sister, Autumn James, 18 months. That’s cute that they used James as the second name for both of their children, I’ve never heard of a family doing that before.
The last time we covered Hewitt, she spoke to People Magazine as part of her new promotional duties for Palmer’s stretch mark cream. She said that she and her Hallisay chose not to learn the sex of their second baby ahead of time, which drove their family and friends “crazy”. Hallisay had the strong feeling that he was having another girl, as he’s close to his sister and mother, but was said to be “prepared either way“. This new baby’s gender must have been a pleasant surprise.
As for the name, I like it and wonder if it was picked out ahead of time. It’s a rare combination of a unique name that isn’t stigmatizing at all. Atticus is of course the father and civil rights lawyer in To Kill a Mockingbird. It’s listed as a boy’s name but I think it could also work for a girl. Kaiser disagrees and says it’s a “straight up boy’s name.” (I’ve never met anyone named Atticus, but she has.) The name is rising in popularity and will only become more common now. Casey Affleck has a son named Atticus and Mary-Louise Parker used Atticus as her son William’s middle name.
Despite the fact that Hewitt used to be so open about her private life that she would use the press to troll for dates and pressure boyfriends to propose, she’s never shown a photo of her daughter Autumn’s face. Hewitt hasn’t held the baby up for the paparazzi, nor has she opted to post any hand or foot photos of her daughter to social media. So we’re unlikely to see a photo of the new baby, which is Hewitt’s choice and is somewhat admirable to me considering she’s never made a point of it. (I know I say this every time I cover her lately, but the press hasn’t picked up on it yet and I’m hoping they will.) I’m glad that Hewitt let us know the baby’s name, though. Congratulations to Hewitt and Hallisay on their new arrival!
Photo credit: FameFlynet, Palmer’s and American Baby
congrats to her! mine are 15 months apart and it’s almost as crazy as having twins, not quite but still crazy. good thing she is rich so she can afford the help! I am glad r see a celebrity who is not trotting out their kids for publicity
Grongrats to her! Didn’t even know she was pregnant again. I like the names and I like the husband
Oh yeah, I forgot the congrats.
I want to like it soooooo badly. On paper, it sounds really cute. Practically, I feel like it would be hard for a kid to go by Atticus. And hard for an adult to have the name Atticus and be anything but a lawyer, lol. It’s a name that carries a lot of weight. I like the same middle name for both of their kids, but that makes it a little harder for Atticus to go by “James” if he wants to. But congrats to JLH on the new behbeh!
I know an Atticus in his 20s and he’s a super chill hippie type that does a lot work outdoors and the last thing you’d think of is him in a courtroom.
Atticus is also the name of a Christian martyr and a philosopher. It is a name loaded with heaviness, historically.
Isn’t that the name of a prison?
Attica is the prison you’re thinking of
Atticus is a very masculine name. And always invokes images of Gregory Peck. Love it.
I agree. When I hear this name I automatically picture a tall, elegant, responsible man. I had this image in my mind since I first read the book some 10 years ago, long before I watched the movie, but Gregory Peck turned out to be everything I imagined about Atticus.
Congrats! Love her house. Very serene.
I actually love when couples decide not to find out the baby’s gender ahead of the birth! I just think it is so special, in the delivery room, when they hold up your baby and say “it’s a boy” or “it’s a girl”…I guess, I’m old fashioned!!
Congrats to Jennifer and her little family!
I like that too. If I have children some day I want to wait until the birth to find out the baby’s gender.
We waited until the birth to find out the sex of all three of our kiddos. After two boys, several people commented to me that they couldn’t believe that we weren’t going to find out during the third pregnancy. DH and I honestly didn’t care whether it was a boy or girl, and we too loved the suspense of finding out at the moment of birth. The anesthesiologist (C section) was so cute – he had two sons, and his wife was pregnant with their third child. He was so hoping for a girl himself that he was so excited when they made the ‘it’s a girl’ announcement for us. 🙂
We waited and I loved not knowing…. The entire L+ D team was so anxious to find out as was friends and family. Plus one of my most favorite memories was when my husband told me, “Boy. He’s a boy.”
Same here. We did not want to find out for both pregnancies-both girls. I feel that there are so few surprises today with all of the technology, and imho, this should be one of them.
Congrats to them.
I like her. I know she says dumb things sometimes, and her boy crazy-ness before she got married was eye roll inducing, but I still like her.
Congratulations to her.
Sad her mother, who she was extremely close to, died before seeing her grandchildren.
Is James a family name?
I’ve always liked the name Atticus
Me too. It might go into the middle name pool when we have kids. I feel like it’d be a hard name for a kid to have as a first name (depending on the kid) but I’ve always loved it.
oh yeah, definitely..
Congrats to Jennifer!. 🙂 I’m not a super fan or anything but I’m legitimately happy for her. I remember how desperate and goofy she was a few years ago. She really seemed to want to get married and have a family so it’s nice to see she got her dream Plus she seems like a nice person and totally harmless 🙂
My friends 5 year old son is named Atticus and my sister is law gave my twin niece and nephews Logan for a middle name.
I really like how JLH has done a 180 and stays out of the spot light now. She used to come across as so desperate it was sad. I think she’s very happy now. Congratulations to her!
Love the names.
I grew up with a family that gave all 3 of their kids the mom’s name for a middle name (girl & 2 boys), and have friends with twin boys that both have dad’s name in the middle. So in both cases it was a family name.
How I wish this name wasn’t becoming trendy! I’ve been saving it since sixth grade, and now that I’m finally in a position to use it, I’ve got two acquaintances who’ve used it in their babies’ names recently.
I’m mad about the “A”.. For without it, that name backwards would sound out “suck it”
What a waste 🙁
The children are both gonna be AJH ! 😀
My coworker named her twins Juniper and Atticus because her husband is one of the biggest hipsters you can get here in Asheville. We call them the artesian twins jokingly…
I like Autumn though for Jennifer Love Hewitt, she seems sweet and harmless like Jessica Simpson these days.
I love the name. It makes me think of cousin Rose’s husband Atticus on “Downton Abbey”, who is a total babe.
Congrats to them. Like the fact that no pictures of their children are shown to the media – and hopefully no social media as well – I think it’s the only way a celebrity and /or actor can truly protect the child’s privacy rights, I mean once you do a spread of the child on a magazine or place a pic of a social media forum that is public, forget it.
Pictures of her kid:
http://www.starkiddo.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Hewitt_kid_pregnant_4.jpg
NOOOOO!!!! My son’s name is Atticus. I loved that he wasn’t going to have 6 friends with the same name. Ugh.
Doesn’t change how much I love the name, though.
I loved the name ‘Autumn’ until she named her kid Autumn… 🙁
She’s still calling paparazzi on herself quite often and there are a few pictures of her poor baby. I think pappos refuse to take pictures of her because she’s not famous anymore even though she’s calling them every day.
LOL.
Your post had me just imagining paps slamming the phone down on her.
:”D
It’s so sad its funny.
No..its just funny. JLH probably feels sad about it though…
I like both her baby names. JLH seemed to go off the pap radar and settle down after the death of her mother, maybe that life event made her re-evaluate her life.
I dont think its cute. I think its kind of lazy.
All of my brother-in-law’s sons have the middle name Michael. Therefore, all of our cats (regardless of gender) have the middle name Michael.
: )
Ha, that is awesome.