Last month, musician John Legend welcomed his fourth child with his wife Chrissy Teigen. The couple welcomed a daughter and chose to name her Esti Maxine. Now, the “Minefields” singer has revealed the touching inspiration behind his daughter’s name.
Esti is a Latin name that means “little star” and was a name choice Chrissy first suggested. The name surprisingly had a touching connection to John’s family. “It turns out, my great-grandmother was named Esther,” the “All of Me” singer shared with E! News. “[The name] wasn’t intentionally after someone but once Chrissy told me that idea, I was like, ‘Oh, my great-grandmother’s name was Esther.'”
While it wasn’t the couple’s intention to give their daughter a moniker with familial ties, they had already planned on using a middle name that did. “We wanted to already name her middle name Maxine after my grandmother, whose middle name was Maxine. So, it’s a lot of my family in the name.”
With their first two children, the couple followed a different naming pattern by giving their children named tied to music culture. The couple’s daughter Luna Simone was given her middle name for civil rights activist and soul singer Nina Simone. Their son Miles Theodore is named for the famous jazz trumpeter Miles Davis.
John and Chrissy also had a third child named Jack who was stillborn when Chrissy gave birth early in September 2020. At the time, Chrissy shared how their third child came by his moniker. “We never decide on our babies’ names until the last possible moment after they’re born, just before we leave the hospital,” the cookbook author explained. “But we, for some reason, had started to call this little guy in my belly Jack. So he will always be Jack to us.”
Congratulations again to John and Chrissy on the arrival of baby Esti. She certainly has a lovely name with great familial ties.
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.
