Kelly Clarkson Had the Chillest Approach to Choosing Her Kids' Very Cool Names
The Kelly Clarkson Show host didn't spend hours flipping through baby name books for ideas.
Kelly Clarkson is a proud mom of two adorable kids with two very cool names that sound perfect together.
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The Kelly Clarkson Show host has a daughter, River Rose (born on June 12, 2014), and a son, Remington “Remy” Alexander (born April 12, 2016). As they’ve gotten older, both of Clarkson’s kids have shown an interest in music, like their superstar mom.
In 2024, Remy, 8, went super viral after he performed Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” in front of a live audience on the set of his mom’s talk show. River also shared on The Kelly Clarkson Show that she’s been dabbling in songwriting and singing at home. “I like to write and I like to sing,” River, 10, said in January 2025. “I do that a lot in my room, and I spend hours and hours and hours singing, trying to do a song.”
If Clarkson’s kids ever choose to follow in their mom’s musical footsteps, not only do they have one of the best mentors in the business, they also have two names that would look pretty darn good on an album cover.
But how, exactly, did Clarkson land on the names River and Remy for her kids? Read on to find out what she’s shared about her baby-naming process.
How did Kelly Clarkson choose the name River for her daughter?
In an October 2016 interview with E! News, Clarkson shared how she came up with the name River for her first child, and it’s pretty straightforward. “We live on a river, so we’re very original with that,” she laughed, adding that they thought it was “such a cool name."
“I like androgynous names,” Clarkson added, “so I like that it could’ve gone either way if it was a boy or a girl.”
The name River is of English origins and symbolizes “tranquility” and “resilience,” Ancestry explains.
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River is also a fairly popular baby name, especially among celebrities. Actress Keri Russell has a son named River, as does musician Taylor Hanson. Actor Jeff Goldblum also named one of his sons River and the Jurassic Park star bonded with Clarkson over the lovely moniker. “I love River for a girl, too. I love androgynous names,” Goldblum said on The Kelly Clarkson Show in 2020.
How did Kelly Clarkson come up with the name Remington for her son?
Clarkson told E! News in 2016 that she had settled on the name Remington before she was even pregnant with her second child. “With Remy, we actually didn’t name him,” she said. “We were at a lunch and I wasn’t even pregnant yet, I was like ‘Man, if we have another kid, we’d want an ‘R’ name. I think it was my nanny and assistant who shouted out Remington and we were like ‘Ooo.’”
While his full name is Remington, Clarkson calls him by a nickname. “We actually call him Remy B,” she told E! News. “[The name] Remington and Remy don’t really fit. He’s kind of like the most super chill dude ever ... if he ever wants a real job one day, he can use Remington.”
The name Remington is also of English origin and “embodies a sense of strength,” according to Ancestry.
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To his mom’s surprise, Remy has said that he actually wants to use his full name professionally. When he attended the Grammy Awards with Clarkson in 2024, Remy told an interviewer on the red carpet that he’d like “Remington Alexander” to be his stage name.
“I was like, ‘Oh, we’re going by our first and middle name. OK.’ And he let me know that day that that’s what he wanted to go by for his stage name,” Clarkson shared in a video for her talk show. “It was really cute.”
