Would name your child after a celebrity?

I want to know if any of you have friends that were named after famous celebrities. If yes, have you ever asked them why their parents named them after those celebrities?

When I was in boarding house, I had a classmate named Michael Jackson – no jokes. His surname is originally Jackson, but his father thought it wise to name him Michael. He also told us that his sister’s name is Janet, but I don’t know her since she wasn’t in our school. I doubt that it was a lie though. Any man who could name is son Michael Jackson in 1983 – 1984 could definitely name his daughter Janet Jackson.

This guy ended up going to Unilag with me. He wasn’t in my faculty so I never got the opportunity to ask him why his parents did that. I wonder if he even ever asked his father.

Source

In my 500 level, we were asked to register students for a CISCO conference. We gladly complied, and sat at the entrance. Then comes a student to register and collect his tag. We realised his name is HARRY PORTER.

Our mouths opened. We asked him what his real name was, the one his parents gave him, not the one he chose for himself. He said Harry Porter. We asked him if his parents like the series, and why they name him after the main protagonist. He said his surname is really Porter and his first name is Harry, and his parents have no idea about the series. He is a Yoruba boy.

We found it hard to believe, so he went ahead to prove his point.

Firstly, his surname is PORTER, not POTTER, as spelt in the Harry Potter Series.

We weren’t totally convinced as his parents could have used the fact that his surname is Porter to name him after the famous protagonist.

Then what silenced our doubt was when he brought out his ID card. He was born long before JK Rowlings conceived the idea of writing and publishing the Harry Porter Potter series.

Spooky coincidence. It seemed he had used his magic wand and witchcraft on us so we were finally believed. Dumbledore to the rescue.

So even though Harry Porter’s own was unintentional and just a mere coincidence, why do parents name their children after celebrities, making them adopt the name and surname?

My own sister’s name is Hilary. At first, it might not seem like a big deal, except when you consider some facts. First, she is the only one with an English name in my house. Secondly, it is her first name, and she was named after Hilary Clinton!

She was born in 1999, after all of us had become old, and I dare to say my father decided to have a child just because they could name him/her Hilary. Yes, he liked Hilary that much, and he always said whether the child is a boy or a girl, the child would have Hilary as a first name.

His reason? Because Hilary Clinton stood firmly by her husband during the Monica Lewinsky saga even though he was guilty. He was always raving about Hilary, and followed the case to the very end. Till his death, that was the person he admired most in the whole world. He admired her till the point that he went to have a child he didn’t need so he could name after her.

What do you guys think about this? Also if you were to name your child after a famous person, who would that be?