When it comes to celebrity baby names, fans have come to expect something unique. Don’t count on seeing Olivias and Noahs running around the playground, but watch out for MGK and Megan Fox’s daughter, Saga Blade, and X Æ A-Xii, the son of Elon Musk and Grimes. One has to wonder how the families of these famous parents react when hearing these choices, because you know those grandparents have opinions. Scarlett Johansson discussed this very issue, revealing how her and Colin Jost’s moms felt about them naming their son Cosmo.
In 2021, Scarlett Johansson gave birth to her first child with Saturday Night Live’s Colin Jost (she also shares a daughter, Rose Dorothy, with ex-husband Romain Dauriac). When it came time to announce the new baby’s name to their loved ones, they had two totally different experiences with their mothers. The Eleanor the Great director said on Today with Jenna & Friends:
My mom loved it, which was great. It was like phew. She was like, ‘Oh, my third-grade crush was a Cosmo.’ It had a great meaning for her. My mother-in-law was like, a few days after, she goes, ‘Cosimo is a name I can find. That’s a recognizable name.’
Oof, that is a tough one! Did Colin Jost’s mom hate the name Cosmo as much as Scarlett Johansson hates the nickname ScarJo? Hard to say, but she seems to have disliked it enough to look into slightly similar names that were more recognizable. Maybe she should have taken it up with “Cosmo’s publicist” Michael Che.
For the record, I’m actually kind of surprised that Scarlett Johansson’s mother was able to relate the name back to a childhood memory. Who knew there were actually Cosmos running around in the world outside of Seinfeld?
It sounds like the Marriage Story star was apprehensive to announce their baby name choice to the world because she didn’t want to deal with any negative reactions. She continued:
I actually didn’t tell anybody for that very reason. I didn’t want any of the weird face. You know, when you tell someone and they go like this, ‘Oh, that’s, that’s different!’ You know when they do that and you’re like, ‘What’s happening? You don’t like it.’
I get it — having a child is one of the biggest moments of your life, and you don’t want others’ opinions to tarnish that experience. She and Colin Jost clearly loved the name, and that should be enough, so to have his mom actually suggest alternate options is kind of brutal.
One can hope that when ScarJo’s mother-in-law met the baby, who has apparently developed into a funny little guy, just like his dad, the name matched up with his personality and she came around on it.
Celebrities like to be trendsetters, not followers, and they’re probably not consulting the list of most popular baby names when they’re expecting. The world will continue to be graced with offspring like North West, Apple Martin and lots of Finns.
When Scarlett Johansson isn’t being a mom to her two kids, she’s keeping pretty busy. After making a few movies this year, she will continue to appear on the 2026 movie calendar, so keep an eye out!
