Nick Lachey Explains The Reasoning Behind His Kids' Names, and His New Role as a Barketologist
February 8, 2019
Chances are if you grew up in the '90s you probably had a crush on 98 Degrees lead singer Nick Lachey. While he’s ditched the frosted tips and hoop earrings since then, he’s still kicking it with the boys as they go on tour this year, and most importantly, being a dad to his kids Camden John, 6, Brooklyn Elisabeth, 4, and Phoenix Robert, 2, with wife Vanessa Lachey.
We sat down with Nick to hear about his latest project involving the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, taking place in New York City on Monday and Tuesday. Nick has partnered with dog food brand Purina Pro Plan earning himself the title of Barketologist, and is encouraging fans watching at home to create a bracket here. Those who predict the seven Westminster group winners and "Best In Show” correctly will have a chance to win $1 million.
Nick has actually been a dog dad to his pooch Wookie for the last 11 years, way before him and Vanessa started their family—owing a lot to Wookie for helping teach him patience and selfishness. While Nick has more mouths to feed these days, he never forgets about his OG son, and keeps him sharp with Purina Pro Plan Bright Mind Adult 7+ in his senior years. And while we could talk to Nick about dogs all day—we wanted to know more about his other babies, the ones that don’t have tails.
Last year, their son Phoenix was diagnosed with respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), landing him the hospital for six days. Nick explains it was a huge wake-up call for the family. While Phoenix was born premature, and they knew he’d require a lot of extra care—they weren’t even aware of what RSV was at the time. Now, “we try to get the word out there about that to people so they can be aware of it too,” he explains. When Phoenix gets a cold, it requires a lot of special attention.
Nick also explained why all their kids were named after destinations. “It wasn’t necessarily a pre-meditated idea that we’re going to name all our kids after a city. Camden got his name because every time we went to the doctor we drove down Camden lane in LA, and we were just like ‘that’s a really cool name.'”
He also admits he had a fantasy of his son becoming a big famous baseball player, and if that came true, he wanted his name to start with a C, so they’d announce "coming up to bat: CJ Lachey”.
“Brooklyn was named Brooklyn because she was actually conceived here in New York,” and the couple wanted to pay homage to the city. “And Phoenix was Vanessa’s call, and I just really loved the named," he says, "but it certainly wasn’t name after Phoenix, Arizona," he laughs.
