Kim Kardashian and Kanye West are parents to a new baby girl who has been given the unexpected place-name Chicago.

　　Chicago, of course, makes a lot of sense as a choice for Kanye, who grew up in the Windy City and talks about it often. Kanye’s hit Homecoming includes the line, “I’m talking about Chi-town.”

　　Chi, pronounced like chai as in tea, can make a cute, simple nickname that fits with the one-syllable names of the couple’s other two children, daughter North and son Saint.

　　The name of Chicago, the largest city in Illinois and the third most-populated city in the US, is thought to derive from a Native American word for “wild garlic”. Early writings spelled it variously as Shikaakwa, Checagou, and Chicagoua.

　　The Wests are not the first stars to choose a personally-meaningful place name for their child. Reese Witherspoon’s younger son is named Tennessee for her home state, Gwen Stefani and Gavin Rossdale’s youngest son is named Zuma after the Malibu beach, and Robert Downey, Jr. has a son named Indio, for the California desert town.

　　Other unusual place-names given to celebrity babies include Bronx, the name of Ashlee Simpson and Pete Wentz’s son, and Alabama, daughter of  Drea DeMatteo and Shooter Jennings.

　　With more parents committed to raising their children in cities, city names in general are on the rise. Among the most popular are London, Paris, Brooklyn, Savannah, and Adelaide.

　　In the days leading up to the announcement of little Chicago’s name, there are lots of jokes flying around about what the little sister of North and Saint might be named. East? Queen? Wild?

　　Our own suggestions for names that would fit into the couple’s established one-syllable unusual unisex word name theme included True and Three.

　　Chicago fits the pattern in all except the number of syllables, but like the other names Kim and Kanye have chosen, carries significant personal meaning.

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