Why Gwen Stefani and Gavin Rossdale named their boy “Zuma Nesta Rock”


Gwen, Gavin and Kingston out on 05/10/08. Credit: Fame
Last night when the news broke that Gwen Stefani had her baby and named it Zuma but the gender wasn’t known yet the first thing I did was look up the name. Since it was listed as a girl’s name, and sounded pretty feminine to me, I made up an “it’s a girl” graphic, declared it a girl and hoped to call it a night. Then People came out with the news that the Stefani-Rossdale’s had decided to name their little boy Zuma and it became the latest addition to the ever-growing list of bad celebrity baby names. It’s certainly not the worst name, and I guess you can consider it inventive and cute, it’s just not something I would pick for a boy.

Nesta is a pretty cool name, though, and it turns out it was originally Bob Marley’s name. According to statements Rossdale gave in an interview, Zuma beach is where had an epiphany and decided to turn his life around and become successful, rich and famous. Since it worked, he’s made the decision to pass that revered name on to his second son. His first son was named after the capital of Jamaica, Kingston:

By naming their newborn son Zuma Nesta Rock, Gwen Stefani and Gavin Rossdale “have proven decisively that they’re masters in choosing names that are both highly unusual and carry a lot of personal meaning,” baby name expert Pamela Redmond Satran, co-author of The Baby Name Bible, tells Usmagazine.com.

“They’ve continued their own place-naming tradition by naming their son after Zuma Beach in Malibu,” Satran explains, citing a profile of Rossdale which said he had an epiphany that began his career.

“He was standing on Zuma Beach in the early morning after working all night as a production assistant on a music video and was quoted as saying he realized he was wasting his time,” Satran says. “He drove up the coast, slept in his car, and started making the moves that would launch his career.”

Zuma is also the name of a 1975 album by Neil Young and Crazy Horse.

Nesta, meanwhile, was Bob Marley’s first name before an immigration official switched it with his middle name, Robert.

“This name obviously links to big brother Kingston’s and is another nod to Jamaica and reggae,” says Satran.

Bob Marley’s son Ziggy used Nesta as a middle name for his son, as did his other son Rohan, who has a son named John Nesta Marley with singer Lauryn Hill.

The name Rock “needs no explanation,” given that the baby’s parents are rock stars, Satran says, and the fact that we’re “long overdue for a Rock Hudson-inspired revival.”

[From US Weekly]

Maybe Zuma Nesta will take a page from his namesake’s book and decide to switch his middle and first names later in life. He also has another name to pick from that’s pretty decent. It really doesn’t matter though. This kid will be so famous that he won’t have to worry about substitute teachers thinking he’s a girl as they do the roll call. There will also be plenty of other little boys named Zuma now that Stefani has set a trend. She’s been known to wear fashion that a lot of people wouldn’t be caught letting the cat out in though, and maybe her influence only goes so far before taste overrides celebrity trend setting.

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32 Responses to “Why Gwen Stefani and Gavin Rossdale named their boy “Zuma Nesta Rock””

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  1. Linda says:

    These parents are nuts with these names anymore!! I really think that Sarah Silverman stopped at the hospital right before they named the kid – that would then make sense as to why they chose such a horrid name.

  2. Dubdub2000 says:

    Well thank God his epiphany didn’t happen at Popey’s! He should have an epiphany about naming his kids ready-made-names-for-bullying! I’m sure Gavin would have loved it if his parents has names him “shagcarpet number 1” and Gwen should have been called “Beta beats VHS”.

    What a couple of twats!

  3. Mairead says:

    Ok the line “overdue for a Rock Hudson-inspired revival” has totally won me over. Zuma Nesta foreva! 😆

  4. Celebitchy says:

    I like the name Rock and Nesta is pretty decent, but Zuma just sounds like a little girl’s name.

  5. jaundicemachine says:

    I think it’s a wonderful tribute to an extraordinary man.

  6. geronimo says:

    I love Zuma, and like Nesta (but not with Zuma so much) but is that explanation of ‘Rock’ not a bit hazy and made-up? By that reasoning, if they were plumbers, it would be Zuma Nesta Plumber. And what has Rock Hudson got to do with anything? Sounds like Satran’s totally chancing her arm with that one.

  7. Jess Doherty says:

    …….because they’re assholes. That’s why they chose that stupid name.

  8. czarina says:

    What I can’t get over is that there are actually “baby name experts” !!!!
    What does a person do as a professional baby name expert, besides wrting a baby-name book (and how many can you write?) and offering sound bites to tabloids on celebrity children?
    Is there really a career to be had here?
    Maybe they could have just found some person in the tabloid office who happens to have 4 or 5 baby-name books at home and called her a ‘baby-name-expert’. I mean, how much more does it take?

  9. photo jojo says:

    All I can think of is that late 80s/early 90s song that went “all I wanna do is zooma zoom zoom zoom”. It ain’t good.

  10. Codzilla says:

    Snowblood called it (on the original Zuma thread) — congrats!

  11. KateNonymous says:

    “Let’s name our son after the place I was when I realized that I was wasting my time.”

    Oh, let’s.

  12. Kaiser says:

    You know what? At least the name can’t be converted in some way to form “Tony” – (KingTON-Y)

    You know what that’s called? Progress.

  13. paris herpes says:

    I know they think it’s cool, but the kid’s name is Zuma?! I mean really…it just sounds really really bad….!

  14. l says:

    Please, the only even worse baby name I’ve heard from a celebrity lately is Peanut. Poor Peanut Rademacher (General Hospital actors count as celebrities if Heidi Montag does). Zuma is second to that. Horrifying crappy name. Hopefully no one follows this trend.

  15. cassie says:

    cz- I couldn’t agree more. A baby name expert? Ridiculous. If I google the origins of enough names, can tabloids cite me as a source of expertise, as well?

  16. Snowblood says:

    @ Codzilla – “Snowblood called it (on the original Zuma thread)” Aw, thanks so much for the shout-out, Codzilla, bella! Yes, i did, didn’t I, I was going bananas yesterday researching those names and thinking agbout it the moment I saw that Gwen had her baby but the sex was unknown, but before I even started looking up the two names I had Zuma Beach on the brain.

    I personally think it’s pretty freakin’ awesome, this name Zuma Nesta Rock. Now that I know why he’s named Zuma, it’s way cool for a boy’s name, and his big brother is named Kingston, another town with significance to their mother & dad.

    The name Nesta is cool, too, I had no idea it was Bob Marley’s original real name. Nesta’s a unisex name! For boys AND girls. Very cool.

  17. Liz says:

    I like it, though I can see it with a girl too. It has zip but is laid back as well.

  18. gg says:

    2 things – Zima, anyone? 😕
    and, methinks somebody loves them some ganja in that little family. Sorry but you don’t make multiple Marley references unless you love reefa. Ask anybody in Amsterdam.

  19. Snowblood says:

    That may be, gg, but bear in mind they’re both musicians who have been highly influenced by the work of the great Bob Marley, so there’s that, too.

    But the thing about Zima? Really? Didn’t that company go out of business like five years ago? I don’t get the connection between the defunct beverage company and Zuma’s new name, aside from one vowel. Strange. Zima was a horrible tasting thing, I remember it tasting exactly like the smell of ant-killing spray. REALly awful drink.

  20. gg says:

    Gavin used to be so cool. Now he’s just not anymore.

    “photo jojo: August 22nd, 2008 at 7:57 pm
    All I can think of is that late 80s/early 90s song that went “all I wanna do is zooma zoom zoom zoom”. It ain’t good.”

    😆 rotfl
    an-a boom-boom! ::shake ya butt!::

  21. vdantev says:

    Naming your baby shouldn’t another attempt to show the world what weird attention whore you really are. Family services should step in and take the child away until she can name him something grounded in planet Earth that won’t insure years of torture by school kids.

  22. Snowblood says:

    GG, remember Bush, and that awesome album Sixteen Stone? Those were the days of HOT Gavin Rossdale! I had that CD, I loved it – Glycerine was my theme song, just about, during the summer of ’96. And I remember having a definite music-crush on Gavin back then.

    Maybe Gwen & Gavin should collaborate on a new song together, a song about their boys and use the boys’ names in it. You know, something catchy, a good song that’ll get radio play and stick in people’s minds when they hear it, so that dumb “zooma zoom zoom” song ceases to be the one everyone thinks of when they hear “Zuma.”

    I know if I were Gwen, that’s what I’d want to do. And anyway, musicians often write songs to their new children, don’t they? They should do it! I think it’d be a great idea.

  23. Think Again says:

    Hi There

    Just for your information…..

    Zuma is the name of the South African

    ANC leader! He is famously know for

    Corruption…and rape – a woman with

    AIDS and then procedes to tell the

    whole nation on national T.V – that he

    took a shower afterwards and all will

    be well! Definately not a good name

    Choice…..!

  24. Anna says:

    I don’t really care what the why is or why there is a why. There’s just a limit to crazy baby names the kids will suffer from and Gwen and Gavin have not only reached it but stepped over it so far they can’t even see it anymore. They’re not the only ones, mind you, not at all but it’s starting to annoy me big time. These poor kids, seriously. As if there weren’t enough unsual, meaningful and still pretty names around. Zuma made me think of Montezuma. Nesta of NestlĂ© and Rock, well, that is just ĂŒber-pretentious. Enough already.

  25. It's OK says:

    I think the name is cute. As for thinking it sounds more like a girl’s name because it ends in an “a”, boys names ending in “a” are pretty common in non-English speaking countries.
    What might sound one way to the English-speaking ear sounds different to others. Look at how the Beckhams thought that “Cruz” sounded masculine and cool for their little boy, but it turns out to be girl’s name in Spanish.

  26. caribassett says:

    I would like to thank Gwen and Gavin, as well as all of the other celebrities who choose unusual names such as “Pilot Inspektor”, and “Apple”. It takes the heat off of me when I am expecting and considering names my husband, or family does not love.

  27. Diva says:

    I’m still trying to figure out why the “problem” is the parents who choose unusual names and not that it’s accepted that those kids are going to be bullied about their names. Just my humble opinion, but the problem there isn’t the different names, it’s the little jerks who everyone just shrugs their shoulders at torturing other kids about something as ridiculous as what they’re called. And spare me the “kids are cruel”… kids are cruel because they’re allowed to be.

    They’re celebrity kids anyway, I don’t think Moon Unit, Diva and Dweezil suffered any damage from their names.

  28. geronimo says:

    Diva, I’ve pondered that one too and come to pretty much the same conclusion as you – the problem is not with the name or the parents, it’s with those who decide, on behalf of the child, and based on their own prejudices and lack of imagination, that an unusual name will give a child lifelong grief. Beats me.

  29. Temujin says:

    Not to be confused with Zima, the fruity, clear alcoholic beverage enjoyed by millions.

  30. Jen (the other one) says:

    Yeah, that is truly an awful name. But…Rock Rossdale is maybe kinda cute? Of the three names, I’d choose Rock, if it were me.

  31. tp Vero says:

    I think ZUMA is a great name! I think it is very masculine as well. I suppose being from SoCAL it comes with all that meaning for me. Zuma is a great beach with a classic wave if anyone out there has ever surfed. I have mentioned before that Zuma is a Chumash Indian (Native American) name that means ‘abundance’. The Chumash Indians lived on that coast for 4000 years. I think it is a well thought out and distinctive name that will place the kid well in his home environment. I can’t see that many people in So CAl will have trouble with the name, but I guess there will always be professional fault finders and they will find fault with anything and everything. I wish the kid well and all the abundance the name and that beautiful beach come with.

  32. gg says:

    Yes, some of the Zappa kids were upset about their names during childhood, by the way. Moon and Frank made the talk circuit right around Valley Girls and talked about it.