Choosing your baby’s name is one of the most important, sacred first acts of parenthood. And, if you’re Christina Ricci‘s husband, it’s something that excites you so much that you forget to get your wife’s consent before settling on a name and telling the entire world. LOL.
Let’s back up, shall we? Christina Ricci and her husband, Mark Hampton, welcomed their first child together, a daughter, back in December 2021. Hampton was the first to announce their baby’s arrival by sharing it on Instagram like any proud papa would do.
Except…he kinda shared the baby’s name before he and Christina had officially agreed on what the name was. Whoops.
During an appearance on Ellen this week, she explained that they’d settled on Cleo, but only briefly tossed around the name Cleopatra.
Christina, who is also mom to 7-year-old son Freddie, underwent a C-section to deliver her daughter.
“My husband was like, ‘Well, we’re going to give her a full name, right? And then the nickname’s Cleo,'” she told Ellen. “And I was like, ‘Cleopatra?’ And he was like, ‘Yeah, the full name’s Cleopatra. And I was like, ‘OK, fine. We’ll talk about this later.'”
As any seasoned husband knows, the words “We’ll talk about this later” usually means “No” or, at the very least, a reluctant “possibly.” But it definitely means you’d better hold your horses on whatever it is you’re being impatient about.
Apparently those five words meant diddly to Hampton, who interpreted the phrase as permission to post their non-agreed-upon baby’s name with gusto for the world to see. But since he’s just an excited dad, we can forgive him.
“He got so excited that he put it on Instagram and media outlets picked up that her full name is Cleopatra Ricci Hampton,” Christina said. “And so I was like, ‘I guess we named her Cleopatra.'”
Either way, the baby is adorable and will undoubtedly live up to her queenly moniker. Congrats again to the Ricci-Hampton family!