The reason Blake Lively was named Blake seems to be ULTRA creepy
Actor and mum Blake Lively is one of Babyology’s most perennially popular celebrity parents, so we knew you’d find this story about how she got her name pretty surprising.
“He was murdered”
Blake, who is married to fellow actor-slash-superstar Ryan Reynolds and mum to the couple’s daughters James and Inez, is doing the publicity rounds for her new – long hyped – film, A Simple Favor.
Speaking in a gimmicky Google auto-complete themed segment for Wired (below) she asserted her name had some pretty sad roots. Because when co-star Anna Kendrick asked her why she was called Blake, she responded:
“My grandmother’s brother was named Blake. But he was murdered. So thanks for asking Google.”
Woah. Gulp.
Read more about Blake and Ryan:
- The inspiring reason Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively named their daughter James
- “I have no idea what I’m doing” Blake Lively has her doubts about motherhood
- Blake Lively is furious the media published sneaky photos of her 3-year-old
It’s a keeper
It seems to be the first time she’s mentioned that particular awful detail, but not the first time she’s talked about the other Blake.
“My grandma’s brother’s name was Blake, and my sister wrote it down when she was reading a family tree,” Blake said in a 2006 interview (she’s the youngest of five kids)
Her parents “said, ‘If it’s a boy, we’ll name him Blake, and if it’s a girl, we’ll name her Blakely.’ And everybody thought I was going to be a boy, and then I came out and I was a girl.”
“They had already been calling me Blake for months because they were positive I was going to be a boy. And they had been calling me Blake for so long, they just [kept it].”
Blake took her mother’s surname when she started out in acting. She was actually born Blake Ellender Brown.
Head to 3.08 in the video above to hear Blake (briefly) talk about her name.
James, Willie, Mattie, Blake
Because we’re nerds here at Babyology, we dug a little bit into Blake’s family tree to find even more girls with more traditionally “boy’s names”. (Assuming all the genealogy sites we checked are accurate.)
Blake says her Grandmother had a brother called Blake, but there is another Blake tucked away too. Let’s allow the path back to her.
So, Blake Lively’s grandmother – on her mum’s side – was named Willie Inez Thrash. (Willie was the wife of James Olin McAlpin.)
Now, Grandma Willie was the daughter of Mr Isaac Farmer Thrash and his wife, Mattie Lee Smith. (Isaac is Blake’s great-grandfather, see?)
Isaac’s parents were named John Allen Thrash and Celia Blake. So Celia is Blake’s great-great grandmother, and comes from a very long line of Blakes.
So there you go!
