Have you gone to see the new Superman movie? It's definitely on my husband's to-do list, and since it stars the yummy Henry Cavill (who I absolutely adored as Henry VIII right-hand man on The Tudors), I wouldn't mind tagging along. It looks like plenty of you have seen it, since it scored a record-breaking, $125 million debut at the box office.
While Superman may be into weird-celebrity-name territory—and Kal-el, his Kryptonian name, definitely is (Nicholas Cage chose it for his son)—his Clark Kent alter ego provides us with two cool, under-the-radar choices.
Clark definitely has some measure of old-Hollywood cool, thanks both to the Man of Steel and Gone With the Wind romantic lead Clark Gable, I think Kent is a fresher choice. It's an English name that means "edge," and it's been out of the top 1,000 baby names for nearly a decade now. (It hit its prime in the 1940s-1960s.)
Kent is also the name of a county in southeastern England, making it a cool place name. It has the cowboy cool of names like Clint and Colt, but with just a touch of British panache. It's also a nice way to honor a Kenneth in your family's history, while still picking something fresher.
Kent works well with longer middle names, like Alexander, Jonathan and Weston. And since I have seen it used a few times for girls, I'd pair it with Adeline, Clementine or Martina.
What do you think of the baby name Kent? Would you take it or leave it—and does it seem like it's a girls' name or a boys'?
