Baby shower entertainment: the Famous Name Game

If you're getting ready to host a baby shower, try playing the Famous Name Game. It's a great game to play if the mother-to-be has already picked out a name for the baby.

How do you play? As the party's host, create a list of famous people with the same first name as the baby. Then, describe those people and let people guess who you're describing.  If you'd like, you can give a prize to the person who gets the most right, or give prizes to the first person to answer each question.

 

Since the Social Security Administration recently released its list of the most popular baby names of 2010, we'll use some popular names for our examples.

Sample Famous Name Game clues:

Jacob

1. Business partner of Ebenezer Scrooge.  (Jacob Marley)
2. Popular werewolf of the Twilight series.  (Jacob Black)
3. Actor of October Sky and Brokeback Mountain fame.  (Jacob "Jake" Gyllenhaal)

Isabella

1. Woman who established a Boston art museum from which 13 works were infamously stolen in the 1990s (Isabella Stewart Gardener)
2. Protagonist of the Twilight series (Isabella "Bella" Swan)
3. Third wife of Juan Perón, whose second wife was immortalized in the musical Evita (Isabella Perón)

Ethan

1. Title of a famous Edith Wharton novel (Ethan Frome)
2. American actor of Dead Poet's Society and Training Day fame (Ethan Hawke)
3. North American furniture chain (Ethan Allen)

Sophia

1. American actress staring in pop television drama One Tree Hill (Sophia Bush)
2. Prolific Italian actress with more than 50 years worth of films (Sophia Loren)
3. Police officer character on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (Sofia Curtis)

If the mom-to-be hasn't chosen a baby name yet, consider playing the Famous Name Game using the baby's last name instead.

For more unique baby shower games, read 3 easy baby shower games that require little or no prep work.