Rumer Willis Reveals the Inspiration Behind Her Daughter’s Name Louetta

When Rumer Willis was pregnant with her daughter, she and her partner, Derek Richard Thomas, were going back and forth with name ideas for the little girl – much like any soon-to-be-parents would. They got to a point where they really liked the name Loretta and were almost ready to solidify it as her name. 

Then, one day, Rumer and Derek were texting one another and something unexpected happened – a typo. “We were thinking about the name Loretta, and it was a typo. Her dad and I were texting, and he left the ‘R’ out of Loretta, and it was just Louetta,” Rumer said in a recent interview with PEOPLE magazine.

It was at that moment that Rumer fell in love with the moniker. “I was like, ‘Oh, I love that!’ I feel like it was one of those kind of divine intervention universe moments, and we figured it out actually quite early in my pregnancy,” she explained. Still, Rumer had her doubts about the name and wasn’t sure if it would fit her.

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Rumer Willis started to question herself – a feeling most expecting moms can relate to. “What was scary was, I love this name, but oh man, is it going to be her name? Is it the right name? What if she comes out and doesn’t look like this?” She just wanted to make sure she was doing her little girl’s name justice. 

On April 18, Rumer gave birth to Louetta Isley Thomas Willis in the comfort of her own home – with her partner, her mother, Demi Moore, her doula, and her two sisters, Scout LaRue Willis and Tallulah Willis, by her side. And when she met her little girl for the first time, she knew they picked the right name.

“I fell in love with the name so much, so early on, that I was then worried that it wouldn’t work. But then she came out, and I mean, to me, at least right now, I was going to name her Lou, whether she was a boy or a girl,” she explained in her interview with PEOPLE – and she has been a proud mother ever since. 

As for why she loves the name so much, Rumer adds that it’s the versatility that stands out to her. She feels it’s a name her daughter can grow into – if she doesn’t like being called Louetta, then she can go by Lou or Etta, or all three. Whatever her daughter likes the most, that’s what her daughter can go by!

Rumer Willis Celebrates First Birthday Since Becoming a Mother

Rumer Willis recently celebrated her 35th birthday (on August 16) and took to Instagram to reflect on the past year – a year that included her first pregnancy and her first child. She talked about all of the ‘new sensations and changes’ she was experiencing, which made her feel both nervous and excited. 

This past year has come with so much growth, so many challenges and fears to overcome but right along side more joy than I could ever imagine. I truly learned what it is to surrender into the deepest core of myself and find a strength and a primal power I didn’t know I had,” she wrote in the Instagram caption.

She goes on to explain how the version of herself today is ‘someone I love more than I ever thought I could.’ She always knew being a mother would bring her into ‘alignment with a divine purpose’ and now that she’s experiencing it firsthand, she now knows that her intuition was right – she now trusts herself. 

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“As I walk into this 35th year of life as a woman and as a mother my highest intention is to have the strength and trust to let go of any pattern, any thinking, really ANYTHING that are no longer serving my or my daughters highest good,” she continued. “I have never felt more beautiful in my whole life.”