Deep Meanings You Never Knew Behind These Celebrity Twin Baby Names

Naming your baby comes with a lot of pressure. Are you going to go with something trendy or stick with a traditional name? Do you opt for the standard spelling or make sure it's extremely unique? And if you have twins, there's even more pressure to come up with two names that have special meanings. Some celebrity parents have gone through this with their own twins, choosing monikers with beautiful origins and meaningful associations to their families.

Sometimes, a name is just a name. Look at George and Amal Clooney's twins, Alexander and Ella, for example. In a 2017 interview with Entertainment Tonight, George spoke about his and Amal's baby naming strategy, revealing that they "just didn't want [their twins] to have really dumb names." Fair enough! 

For other parents of twins, however, their names were chosen with much more specific intent, and have deeper meanings than you may have realized. From Sarah Jessica Parker's twin daughters, who are growing up to be gorgeous to Hillary Swank's twins, many stars have thoughtfully given their twins beautiful baby names. Sometimes, these names even seemed to predict the personalities of the babies — like for Beyoncé and Jay-Z's twins, whose thoughtful names reflect who the children are as individuals.

Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick's twin daughters were born in June 2009 via surrogate, and they were given the vintage names of Tabitha Hodge and Marion Loretta Elwell. Both of the girls' middle names came from Parker's side of the family — and they certainly have a history. Parker's ancestor, Esther Elwell, was one of the women accused of being a witch during the Salem Witch Trials in 1692, something the "Sex and the City" star discovered in a September 2025 episode of "Who Do You Think You Are."

Tabitha is an Aramaic name that means "gazelle" or "gracious," while Hodge is traditionally a masculine name of English origin that is a nickname for "Roger." Marion, a form of the name Marie, with English and French origins, means "drop of the sea," "bitter," or "beloved." Additionally, Loretta is Italian and references the "bay laurel plant," and Elwell means "healthy spring." Based on what Parker has said about her daughters, some of the twins' differences have played out in their names, as the more-stubborn Marion prefers to skip her first name and goes by Loretta, while her more introverted sister is happy to stick with the name Tabitha. 

When Beyoncé and Jay-Z christened their twins Rumi and Sir Carter in 2017, the names were a bit unusual — although, not as surprising as their firstborn daughter, Blue Ivy. Though some see red flags in Beyoncé and Jay-Z's relationship, you wouldn't know it based on the way they so easily agreed upon baby names. It turns out, the twins had very special meanings behind their uncommon monikers. Sir is a British title that is masculine and respectful, while Rumi has multiple origins — "flowing beauty" and "lapis lazuli," is its Japanese meaning, and "from Rome," is its Persian meaning.

In an August 2017 interview on his streaming service, Tidal (per ABC News), Jay-Z revealed, "Rumi is our favorite poet, so it was for our daughter," referring to 13^th century Persian poet Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi. As far as his son, that name had a less philosophical meaning. "Sir was like, man, come out the gate," Jay-Z said. "He carries himself like that. He just came out, like, Sir."

It seems that Rumi and Sir's names are fitting for their respective personalities. In a 2024 interview with E! News, Beyoncé's mom, Tina Knowles, commented on the twins' individual interests. "Rumi is amazing — an amazing artist, painter and creator," Knowles revealed. She also said that Sir is "very very smart" and "very quiet." "[He] does all of the numbers stuff, so he's not into fashion as much," Knowles added.

In 2023, Hilary Swank and husband, Philip Schneider, welcomed twins, a daughter named Aya and a son named Ohm. As the name Aya is of Japanese, Hebrew, Danish, and Arabic descent, it has multiple meanings, including "colorful," "design," "honey buzzard," "rock," "lull," "happiness," "sign," "dawn," and "melody." Ohm, on the other hand, means "creation" and is also a version of the Buddhist meditation chant, "Om."

In a 2024, interview on "The Today Show," Swank, a celebrity who had her first children after age 40, revealed the meaning she had in mind for her twins' names. "Aya was a Syrian refugee we met in Lebanon. So, she was just this courageous, brave, young girl full of light ... And my my husband and I thought, 'She's so beautiful, what a great name.'" When it came to her son's name, Swank explained, "Ohm is considered the first universal sound and unites all people, and we just thought, 'Wow, that sounds, like, very fitting.'"

Mariah Carey and ex-husband Nick Cannon had multiple special connections to their twins' names, Moroccan and Monroe. In a 2011 interview with E! News (via Today), Cannon revealed that Monroe's name came from famous style icon Marilyn Monroe, who Carey has always admired. For Moroccan, Cannon liked the strength the name emanates, among other reasons. "You think about Moroccan and that's kind of like my name and Mariah's name phonetically together. I also proposed to my wife in our Moroccan room. There's a lot of meanings to it. We put a lot of thought into those names." Though Monroe doesn't have a middle name, Moroccan shares the middle name Scott with his dad.

As for their official meanings, Monroe is of Scottish origin and means "mouth of the River Roe." Moroccan is a name of English origin that means "from the Western Kingdom" (in addition to the literal meaning as an adjectival form of Morocco). These names are also gender neutral, and the twins' nicknames — Roc and Roe — are a fun play on the words "rock and roll."