Drew Barrymore Explains Baby Girl Olive's Name to Ellen DeGeneres

Will Kopelman's wife tells the host that once they decided on the moniker, "there was no turning back!"

By Rebecca Macatee Dec 06, 2012 2:57 PMTags

It's all in the name!

Drew Barrymore picked out her daughter Olive's name when she was still in the womb. On Thursday's episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Will Kopelman's wife explained that their 10-week-old baby girl was named for her size at the time.

"I never would have guessed that would have been the name," the 37-year-old actress said. "But I was reading a book with my husband. I was three months pregnant and they said your baby is the size of an olive, and that was it. We never looked back."

"It could have been the size of a peanut or a grapefruit," Ellen quipped.

"It could have been," Drew said, laughing. "It was a lot fruit and vegetables."

"It could have been named kidney bean?" Ellen asked.

Not quite. "Kidney's not such a fun name," Drew answered.

Drew explained that she and Will were "shopping a few [names] as all people do who are so blessed to get to do this. And then once the light was shed, there was just no turning back."

Coincidentally, Olive is the name of an animated reindeer Drew voiced in the 1999 TV special Olive the Other Reindeer. Back in 1995, the Big Miracle star, who was then dating Hole musician Eric Erlandson, told Rolling Stone she wanted to name her future daughter Ruby Daffodil.

We're definitely glad she went with Olive.