The meaning behind the name Patrick Mahomes, Brittany Matthews chose for their baby
Sterling Skye Mahomes entered the world on Feb. 20, and her arrival made headlines across the nation.
That’s because her parents are Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes and his fiancee, Brittany Matthews, who is part owner of Kansas City’s NWSL team.
So what does the name mean? Here’s what we found.
Sterling
Babynames.com says the name Sterling “has been used mostly by parents as a boys name and means Starling or Little Star.”
”Originally an English surname, associated with the type of silver,” Baby Names writes. “Also the name of British currency, to which the ‘pound’ refers. The word sterling most likely comes from the Middle English word steorra, ‘star’ plus the diminutive suffix -ling.”
The Bump writes: “It is of English origin, and the meaning of Sterling is ‘genuine, of high quality.’”
There are some well-known people with the name Sterling, including actor Sterling K. Brown of “This is Us” and “Black Panther” fame, Sterling Sharpe (former NFL wide receiver), Sterling Marlin (auto racing driver) and Sterling Hitchcock (former baseball pitcher).
A few well-known women have the moniker, including actress Sterling Jerins, who was in “World War Z” and “Deception,” and ballet dancer Sterling Hyltin.
The Social Security website tracks names back to the year 1900, and Sterling has never cracked the top thousand names for a girl. But for boys, the name ranked 409th last year. The height of its popularity was 1909.
Jennifer Moss, the CEO of BabyNames.com, told Parents Magazine last year that people were drawn to “power names.”
“I believe that parents want to infuse strength into their children during these difficult times,” Moss said.
Skye
The middle name Skye means “From the Isle of Skye,” Baby Names said, which added it is of Scottish origin.
“Skye is name that’s been used by parents who are considering unisex or non-gendered baby names — baby names that can be used for any gender,” the site notes.
But the Social Security site says Skye has been a fairly popular girls name for the past decade. Last year, it ranked 418th for all girls names and its peak popularity was in 2014 (ranked 367th).
This story was originally published March 2, 2021 at 9:59 AM.