INFdaily.comFamous people don’t like to name their kids something like Elizabeth Marie, because then we wouldn’t be interested. (Plus stars are kinda crazy, and normal names don’t suit them.)
So when Gwen Stefani and Gavin Rossdale gave us the name Zuma Nesta Rock, we knew it was time to break out our celebrity baby-name decoder rings (otherwise known as Google) and bring you our best guess at what this name means—before the G&G explain it to some magazine. So let’s get to it!
Zuma: In Arabic the name means “peace” and in Africa the name can also mean “bee,” “honey” or “friend.” But baby Zuma was not named after any of those. Gwen actually christened her new son after the popular Internet game she played throughout her pregnancy to pass the time. OK, that’s not true either.
There is a beach in Malibu called Zuma where Gavin supposedly had an epiphany early one morning when he realized he wanted to be a famous rockstar. Big bro Kingston is also named after a location—Kingston, Jamaica, home to Bob Marley. And speaking of Marley...
Nesta: This is Bob Marley’s middle name—G&G kinda have a thing for the reggae legend, obvs. This part of I Am Legend must have really affected them.
Rock: Gavin’s band falls into this genre of music, and Gwen has an album called Rock Steady, although her more recent work would be classified as pop. However, if they used the name "Pop," that could be traced back to an 'N Sync song and that's really not cool. Also, the whole family lives and dresses like rock stars, so it just probably seemed natural.
Pamela Redmond Satran, coauthor of The Baby Name Bible, sums it up best when she tells Us Weekly that G&G "have proven decisively that they're masters in choosing names that are both highly unusual and carry a lot of personal meaning."
—Additional reporting by Claudia Rosenbaum