Is Stormi Named After Someone? Kylie Jenner Has A Taste For The Shakespearean

Kylie Jenner has had nine (or ten, depending on how you're counting) months to think about how her birth will go, without the intrusion of media or public opinion. And now, we have a baby name. Daughter of Travis Scott and Jenner, Stormi is named like the singer Stormi Henley, and like the European "Tempest."

Stormi's name was announced in an Instagram post Jenner published on Tuesday, Feb. 6, in which she photographed her daughter's tiny hand clutching her finger, and wrote, "stormi" with an emoji of a mid-skin-toned baby angel emoji. And, in an egalitarian move, Stormi is named for both her parents: Stormi Jenner Scott. As an Aquarian — an air sign – we think it couldn't be more fitting. But where did the inspiration for the name come from?

If Jenner has been trawling the baby-name books, she will know that Stormi, spelled with an "i," dates back to about 1975 in the U.S., and 12 babies were given the name in 2012, per Baby Name Science. But the name has deeper roots than that, being an Americanization of the word "tempest," from old English.

Jenner's announcement was touching:

While Twitter needed a moment to think it over:

Tempest has long been a British (Yorkshire-originating) nickname for individuals with a "blustery" temperament, not unlike a storm. Shakespeare wrote a play that centers on the power of a magical tempest that destroys a ship full of Prospero's enemies, but strands Prospero and his daughter Miranda on an island. Needless to say, the plot rapidly complicates itself, but things end very well romantically for Miranda.

The Kardashians are nothing if not savvy when it comes to Shakespeare's two flavors: tragedy and comedy. They have performed the past 10 years of their lives on a public stage, acting out the Shakespearean line, "All the world is a stage, and all the men and women merely players." (Notably, not from The Tempest, but from As You Like It.)

Many fictional characters have been named after storms, including Thowra in The Silver Brumby, who was named for the winds that blew the night he was born. A quick check of TimeandDate.com tells me that Los Angeles was sunny and a high of 72 degrees with "no wind" on Feb. 1, 2018. So the infant was likely not named for a howling IRL tempest on the day or night she was born. Rather, her name speaks to a metaphoric idea meaningful to Jenner and Scott. And look, nothing could be truer than the idea that a Kardashian-Jenner baby brings a storm with it.

Previously in "Stormi"s is American Idol contestant Stormi Bree, whose baby has already worked up a storm of cuteness, and an Australian gladiator, "Storm," from the good old days.

Naming your baby after the elements dates back to ancient Greece and Persia, with names like Wendy having atmospheric roots.

Many expected Kylie Jenner to call her daughter Mariposa or Butterfly, after the clues in her pregnancy announcement video, in which the camera panned over a motif of butterflies in the beautifully decorated nursery, but it would seem that the biggest clue was right in front of us.

She did in fact name her child for the swarm of butterflies dancing on the wind, but not in the way many commentators expected. Through the reveal of her birth and the careful concealment of her pregnancy, Jenner has shown that she is willing to go her own way, and the name Stormi Jenner Scott confirms that wild and free instinct.

Check out Romper's new video series, Bearing The Motherload, where disagreeing parents from different sides of an issue sit down with a mediator and talk about how to support (and not judge) each other’s parenting perspectives. New episodes air Mondays on Facebook.