Country music singer and songwriter Granger Smith announced in March that he and his wife Amber were expecting their fourth child together. The news came less than two years after the couple lost their son River Kelly in a drowning accident in June of 2019. The couple revealed the name they have chosen for their new baby on their YouTube channel.
Their new baby, a boy, will arrive this coming August. They’ve chosen to name him Maverick Beckham. In their video, the couple shared that this name honors their son River in a unique way.
“I really wanted Riv to be in the name, whatever name we picked, I wanted Riv to be a part of that name,” Amber explained. “We went back and forth – should we do middle name Kelly? Or should we do middle name River? I wanted this baby to have his own identity, and I didn’t want him to be so tied to River. But I did want him to have a little piece of his brother in his name. Beckham, his middle name, essentially means ‘home by the river.’ So Maverick Beckham Smith.
Granger chimed in on how they chose Maverick’s first name. “I’ve liked the name Maverick my whole life, and it’s always been just an awesome name to me. It could also represent the old cowboy days, and you’d find a calf, and it was off by itself, and you had to search for it — a maverick calf. I’ve always thought it would be cool for a little caboose, a little baby that wasn’t really supposed to be here, but is now … he’s like the maverick baby of the Smiths.”
The couple also revealed that they had planned a girl’s name in a similar way before finding out the gender of their next child. They would have chosen the name Everleigh.
Congratulations again to Granger and Amber! They’ve chosen a lovely name for their son and have honored River in a unique way.
Kate Fann (she/her) is the BabyNames.com celebrity blogger, as well as an established content writer, aspiring author, and social media expert. She has been featured in online publications such as Bolde, ManoByte, Medium, The Social Observer, and more. Kate has ghostwritten numerous romance novels and is currently working on publishing her own works in the Young Adult genre.
Kate lives in East Tennessee with her husband Casey and her two sons, Quinn and Noah. When she's not writing or scrolling Instagram, Kate can be found tasting delicious wines, playing with make-up, baking yummy treats, or hiking the beautiful Smoky Mountains.
