Here's the Inspiration Behind the Totally Normal Names of George and Amal Clooney's Twins
The celebrity world abounds with creative, modern, or totally out-there baby names—depending, of course, on your stance on the matter. Sometimes, however, new parents bless their A-list progeny with classic names: last year, Keri Russell and partner Matthew Rhys named their newborn son Sam, for example. Such is the case with George and Amal Clooney, who, 12 weeks ago, welcomed their twins, Alexander and Ella. And now, we know where the twins’ perfectly normal names came from—thanks to an interview George and pal/actor Matt Damon did with ET at the Venice Film Festival on Friday.
Apparently, he and Amal “just didn’t want to have really dumb names.” Fair enough.
“We figured these kids are going to be looked at a lot and watched and [have their] every move sort of judged, and we wanted them to at least have a break with the names,” George told ET. “So we looked for some sort of normal names. We didn’t have any great inspiration. It wasn’t Alexander the Great and Ella Fitzgerald.”
Damon asked if the couple’s son was named after Alexander Hamilton instead (so timely!).
“It was Alexander Hamilton,” Clooney said. (He was joking.)
He also spoke candidly about what it felt like the moment he became a father, and it’s too good not to share, to be honest:
“I suppose [the realest moment is] just the minute they came out,” Clooney told EW. “None of it is real until all of a sudden they’re standing there covered in slime and crying. You’re like, wait a minute, what is that? We were just two and now we’re four.”
Beyond the premiere of George’s new movie, Suburbicon, at the film festival—where Amal, by the way, looked gorgeous at her first red carpet since the babies—the couple has been staying busy donating $1 million to fight “violent extremism” in the U.S. and prepping to open a school for Syrian refugees. We can only imagine how cool those twins are going to grow up to be.
Related Stories:
–George and Amal Clooney Just Welcomed Twins, and Their Names Are Classic
–We Finally Know How Amal and George Clooney Met, and It Was Love at First Sight
–Amal Clooney’s First Post-Baby Red Carpet Gown Is Perfection—But What Else Did You Expect?