Ryan Gosling, Eva Mendes Kids: Actress & Fashion Designer Reveals Why Both Daughters Share Same Name [VIDEO]
Many believed it was strange that both Ryan Gosling and Eva Mendes' daughters bear the name Amada, and now, the actress is setting the record straight on why Esmeralda's middle name became her sister's first name.
In a new interview with Latina Magazine, Mendes confirms that the name was the one that belonged to her beloved grandmother, which was why it was so significant when it came to naming their first daughter, and she also admitted that it wasn't the initial plan to give Amada Lee a similar name, even though it would have been something that isn't considered strange in the culture she grew up in.
"My grandmother's name is Amada, and Esmeralda Amada is the name of our oldest," she said. "We had a few names picked out for our new baby, and when she was born, we didn't feel like those names were her. We came up with a few more, even that morning, and tried them out. We were like,'What about Viviana?' But we just kept going back to Amada. In true Latin fashion, we reuse names all the time. I used to know five sisters that were all Maria del Carmen, Maria Elena, Maria Liliana."
"I actually told Ryan, 'This is common in Latin culture, so it wouldn't be crazy,'" she continues. "SO we went with Amada because it was something we kept going back to. And it was an emotional time with the passing of my brother. We thought how beautiful to go with what made us emotional and with what felt like her. When we looked at her, we thought,. 'Aww, Amadita.'"
Mendes also opened up about the intense feelings she had when she gave birth to Amada earlier this year, which happened not long after her brother, Carlos, passed away after a battle with cancer.
"Losing my brother brought our family closer, and we were already close to begin with," she said. "So to just see everybody be there for one another and show up, I feel so lucky to have the,. And then they were there for me when Amada was born. We had a funeral service for him and that same week I had the baby. So it was really, really intense and obviously beyond heart-breaking, but also kind of beautiful."
