Ed Sheeran Reveals Baby Daughter's Strange, Chilly, Musical Name

Given all that 2020 has dumped on the world, we are so grateful for the little bits of light that are celebrity baby announcements this year, including the latest news that Ed Sheeran and wife Cherry Seaborn have welcomed a baby girl. The singer announced the birth of his daughter in a rare Instagram post on Tuesday. While we haven’t yet seen the little one or heard her no-doubt excellent pipes, we know she is already blessed with a musical and offbeat name.

“Ello! A quick message from me as I have some personal news that I wanted to share with you,” Sheeran wrote Tuesday morning, sharing a pic of a small knitted blanket and baby socks. “Last week, with the help of an amazing delivery team, Cherry gave birth to our beautiful and healthy daughter — Lyra Antarctica Seaborn Sheeran.”

We thought it would be hard to top “Cherry Seaborn” as awesome names in that family, but it looks like they’ve done it!

Lyra is a name of Greek origin that means lyre or harp, which is pretty fitting for the daughter of a famous musician. The U.K.’s Office for National Statistics reported that Lyra was the 150th most-popular name for girls born in 2019. According to BabyNames.com, the name currently ranks #680 in U.S. births (those are 2018 numbers), but it’s at #94 on that site’s popularity list. Some have also speculated that Sheeran named his daughter after the character in His Dark Materials, Lyra Belacqua, since he had previously declared his love for the Philip Pullman books.

Now, Antarctica is another matter entirely. We are so curious as to why the Seaborn-Sheerans chose the frozen continent for their daughter’s middle name. Other than the fact that it is also a name of Greek origin (meaning: opposite of Arctic), we’re not sure what it has to do with their baby girl. Maybe quarantine has the couple itching for exotic travel?

Well, they’re happy to be homebound for now, at least.

“We are completely in love with her,” Sheeran’s post continued. “Both mum and baby are doing amazing and we are on cloud nine over here. We hope that you can respect our privacy at this time. Lots of love and I’ll see you when it’s time to come back, Ed x.”

Our mission at SheKnows is to empower and inspire women, and we only feature products we think you’ll love as much as we do. Please note that if you purchase something by clicking on a link within this story, we may receive a small commission of the sale.

Here are some of the other creative celebrity baby names we love.

celebrity baby names
celebrity baby names

Launch Gallery: Dessert, Onyx & More Weird & Wonderful Celebrity Baby Names

More from SheKnows

Best of SheKnows

Sign up for SheKnows' Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.