Did anyone else sort of forget that we still didn’t know the name of Rihanna’s son? We finally got to see his face on the cover of British Vogue several months ago, but Rihanna had already posted some videos and photos of the baby before the magazine came out, because she was trying to dilute the value of some paparazzi pics. Throughout all of those dramas, we still didn’t know the kid’s name! Well, the Daily Mail got their hands on the baby’s birth certificate and drumroll please…
Rihanna and A$AP Rocky kept their son’s name a secret for a year, but the moniker has finally been revealed. The Daily Mail shared a copy of the baby’s birth certificate, which shows his full name is RZA Athelston Mayers. He appears to be named after Wu-Tang Clan member RZA (whose real name is Robert Fitzgerald Diggs), pronounced “Rizza.” The baby shares his middle name, Athelston, with dad Rocky. The birth certificate also confirms RZA’s date of birth was May 13, 2022.
As the tabloid noted, Rihanna had hinted at the baby’s name on April 5, where she was spotted carrying little RZA while wearing a Wu-Tang Clan shirt. She’d also been photographed in August 2022 wearing a RZA tee.
I actually like the name “Rizza” but I’m lukewarm on using an acronym for a kid’s name. Still, I kind of agree that the kid looks like a Rizza/RZA. I also wonder if there was more connections than just “Rihanna liked the name RZA.” Rihanna is Robyn – she probably wanted an R name. Maybe the name stands for something else entirely. Who knows. I wonder what she’ll name the second kid? Fingers crossed for ODB (whose first name is actually Russell, another R name).
Photos courtesy of Backgrid.
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- Santa Monica, CA – Pregnant Rihanna is fashionable in an oversized WuTang Clan jersey as she is leaving dinner with her baby boy in Santa Monica. Pictured: Rihanna BACKGRID USA 5 APRIL 2023 USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- New York, NY – Rihanna and A$AP Rocky enjoy a meal at Remedy Diner after attending a Met Gala party in New York City. Pictured: Rihanna BACKGRID USA 2 MAY 2023 BYLINE MUST READ: Erwyn Diaz / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- New York, NY – Rihanna and A$AP Rocky enjoy a meal at Remedy Diner after attending a Met Gala party in New York City. Pictured: Rihanna BACKGRID USA 2 MAY 2023 BYLINE MUST READ: Erwyn Diaz / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- New York, NY – Pregnant Rihanna & ASAP Rocky step out for a dinner date at Carbone this evening in New York. Pictured: Rihanna, ASAP Rocky BACKGRID USA 3 MAY 2023 BYLINE MUST READ: PapCulture / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- New York, NY – Pregnant Rihanna and her beau ASAP Rocky made a stunning entrance at the LVMH Party in NYC, with Rihanna’s radiant pregnancy glow and chic style stealing the show! Pictured: Rihanna, ASAP Rocky BACKGRID USA 5 MAY 2023 BYLINE MUST READ: PapCulture / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
These people live in the own worlds, don’t they? Artists use stage names for a reason. Giving a “stage name” to a kid who has to go to school with other kids just seems cruel (looking at Future, Apple, Kulture, Wave, Aire, North, etc.).
These celebrity children will be going to the same schools and running in the same circles. They probably won’t be at some public school being ridiculed for their name.
I guess that’s the point they will probably not be going to schools or have social circles with a Henry or Lucy.
It kind of speaks to the idea of exceptionalism. The belief being that they don’t need an “ordinary” name because they will be extraordinary people doing extraordinary things. God forbid one of these kids wants to do something pedestrian some day.
Please. The number of whacky names regular folks give their kids is hilarious to me. I see it every day in my work life.
I work at a public library and you would not, I mean, would NOT believe the names that I see.
As a primary school teacher, I can assure you that plenty of “normals” choose wacky names for their kids, too. Though as a Linguistics major, it’s usually the nonsensical spellings that rile me (I once had a student named Emba, pronounced Emma, which is…not how phonetics work. And then there were the parents who thought Jizzelle was the spelling to go with…).
I feel like we don’t know a LOT of celebrity kids’ names. I remember when it was a big thing with a big reveal in People so now that it’s not it’s probably a good thing. No reason if your parent(s) are famous you have to be a public person as well. That said I kinda like “RZA”. I mean it’s letters and not numbers or symbols!
I mean, it could have been worse. It’s a shame that the name couldn’t have remained private for the baby’s sake but the DM has no scruples.
Agree. F$ck the Daily Mail for this.
Yes, this feels SO icky and such an invasion of privacy. Knowing what we know as the DM is under trial right now, you have to wonder what shady methods were used to obtain the birth certificate?!?
A lifetime of filling out forms that get questions.
Always being asked how do you pronounce that?
Unusual celeb kids names, I thought might be a fad. Guess not. Looks like it is gonna be a thing for quite awhile.
R names? Richard, Robert, Ryan, Randall, Reggie, Ronald, etc. Old School.
Those names are also all incredibly WHITE. JS
Richard Roundtree, Robert Johnson, Reggie Jackson, Ronald (Ron) Glass: an actor, a magazine publisher, a baseball player, and another actor are all Black Americans. And, with respect, “RZA” is a stage name, when did it get to be Black?
Well, my kids get that anyway with their names because they’re not English-based names. I’m not about to regret not naming them Ryan or Randall.
@Debbie
That doesn’t make them black names. That makes them black people with white names. More than likely due to respectability politics.
My father is named Christopher. A nun at the hospital where he was born in 1950 named him that.
Richard as in D*ck?
She’s just talkin bout Shaft.
How are people ignoring the common and valuable facet of Black American culture where you specifically create a name or choose an unusual non-Anglo or recent name for your child as the knowledge of your culture’s names was stripped from your family by horrific violence?
Gwyneth Paltrow’s names and Rihanna’s names are not part of the same conversation. Where I live, in Oakland, a huge number of kids have “made up” names and no one in public school is getting made fun of for it. In fact, taking the time to learn a unique pronunciation is a sign of respect.
Respect, but, Rihanna isn’t American.
According to my three gen zoomers, having “riz” means having charisma.
I absolutely LOVE the name but I’m a huge Wu-Tang fan.
A friend I went to high school with named his kid Hendrix, which I also really like.
RZA > common names misspelled like breydone instead of Brayden
Brandon is an unusual name. My grandson is Blaise. Also an unusual name. It is the English version of Biagio, my Italian grandfather. He would have been so proud.
WU-TANG IS FOR THE CHILDREN
Sure, why not? I’m not sure I would have spelled it that way, as opposed to Rizza, but whatever floats her boat!
Does anyone have an idea on the pronunciation of the middle name?
They named him after RZA from Wu Tang Clan and spelled it the same way because of the supreme alphabet. Asap is a 5 percenter. Each letter has meaning.
Oh wow! Thanks for the info on that. I had never heard of either of those things. Good context to have for sure.
@Beck exactly! I’m sitting here confused like; clearly, they are using an alphabet/language system for this child’s name. It’s a part of the Supreme Alphabet, and Wu-Tang, especially RZA are all big on 5%er concepts and talked about it/rapped about it a lot. Where do people think SZA got her name from?
I doubt seriously young RZA will be filling out applications at Target and if he is going to be discriminated against, it will be because he’s black, not whether his name is RZA or Robert. If he needs an “acceptable” name, he can always use his middle name.
Name kid number 2 Method Man ODB, or I will not take Rhi and Rocky seriously. 😃
They could name the next kid Cream. C.R.E.A.M…cash rules everything around me. A popular Wu-Tang song from long ago.
We glossing over how the name got out there and how upset Rihanna and ASAP Rocky probably are about it?
A few years ago I met a person who knew someone who named their new baby girl ABCDE…. no joke! They pronounced it “Absadee”. Poor kid :/
Have we met in real life because I know someone who named their daughter Abcde (pronounced absede).
That is the most adorable baby. He seems to have a very happy, content energy about him. He’ll have a great temperament, no doubt, very chill. I wonder if her next baby will be a boy or girl. I hope a girl because she’s expressed the desire to have one. Lovely family.
I think Rza is cool. Robyn, Rza, and Rakim. I’m assuming the new baby will also start with an R. I hope the next one is a girl.
I could not care less what a parent chooses to name their child. I’m in education and I have seen it all and it is fine. But I will say that this is one cute kid.