Caleb Followill and Lily Aldridge Welcome Daughter Dixie Pearl

Cute name actually.

@gilda- it’s just you. love the name. congrats to the couple!

why do we need to know about everyone’s having a freaking baby??

Congratulations to them; I absolutely love them together as a couple. I bet their daughter is going to be gorgeous and she has such a beautiful name, too.

Congrats! I saw them at a restaurant in Nashville just 2 weeks ago and was wondering when she was due. They seemed very happy and love…not to mention how GORGEOUS Lily was sans makeup. Lovely name as well!

Congrats to Lily and Caleb on their new arrival 🙂

@host. Maybe because this is the Mom & Babies section of people. Keyword: babies.

She couldn’t find anyone better looking?? they don’t make a nice couple… love is blind but congrats on the baby.

Not fond of the connotations of the name “Dixie.”

Marky,

Fantastic remarks 😉 I applaud you.

Everything Marky said. 🙂

Awesome, another homophobe in training. Congratulations!

His wife is very pretty, he looks like such a dork. I don’t like the name Dixie Pearl, it sounds hoakey like some unmentioned character on the beverly hillwilliams.

Oh, Marky, sweeeeeetheaaaaartttt (in my best faux southern accent), as a native black Alabaman, I don’t have to dig far or hard to find obvious and not-distant historical record of negative connotations of the name “Dixie.” The white experience of Dixie and the black experience of Dixie are very different, and regardless of all the “great and talented” individuals who have borne the name, I will never like it. That you want to dwell solely on Dixie Carter and not on the historical reference and relevance of the name is wholly unsurprising; most Americans would prefer to sweep the darker parts of our shared history under the rug.

I am from Bama too! But I guess I have been taught that bygones and bygones…………

Can someone explain the hullabaloo behind dixie? I’m west-indian and not southern so i don’t know the history.

I’m very surprised to see people commenting on his looks! I think he is damn handsome!

The Followills are not English (although KOL did first hit it big in the UK rather than their home country, which may be what you’re thinking of).

Lily posted a lovely tweet this morning: “Thank you everyone for all the sweet words! We are so in love with our darlin Dixie Pearl 🙂 much love to everyone xoxox”

Marky is right. Jen SPACE DC is wrong. The end.

Talk about an odd looking couple! She’s gorgeous and he’s, well, let’s just say I didnt see this coupling happening. But congrats, because there is more to attraction than just looks! 🙂

lmao @some of the comments above. I’m a die-hard liberal, born and raised on the West Coast (California to be precise), Asian on my father’s side, and I absolutely adore the name “Dixie” AND the song.

Indira, “Dixie” commonly refers to the states of the Confederacy or, more politically correctly, a swath of southern states including Louisiana, Missisippi, Alabama, Georgia, (currently only parts of) Florida, Tennesse, the Carolinas and Virginia. Historically – depending on your version – these states were either fighting to preserve slavery or for “states’ rights.” These were the same states that enacted Jim Crow laws through reconstruction through the dismantling of those underpinnings in the ’50s and ’60s.

Sigh. Marky, you are, yet again, misconstruing my exact and very clear words. I did not call *you* trifling or claim that you were slinging BS (I would have said full of sh*t instead) – I called your FOCUS on my distaste trifling and BS as compared to what you referred to as “real issues.” I also never said that my belief was that they named their kid (Christ) “Dixie Pearl” to be offensive. Frankly, I think they are simply too self-involved to think past what they believe to be adorable hipsterism. I mean, really: DIXIE PEARL? *Dixie Pearl*?! Contrived. Although maybe there is some family connection other than simply being southern. Perhaps they will provide additional insight. We’ll see.

Apologize for something you didn’t do? That’s foolish. Apologize for being condescending *if you want*, since that’s something you DID do.

The easiest way to avoid arguments is to avoid belittling others’ opinions. And then don’t follow up with your Civil Rights bona fides and your age as if that information suddenly makes your opinion about “Dixie” more valid than my own. If you are so knowledgeable and were, in fact, there, then the fact that others have and maintain negative feelings about “Dixie” shouldn’t be so shocking as to require comment.

I also reiterate that I am not offended by the name (Meghan – check thesaurus.com and grow your vocab); I simply don’t like what the connotations are *to me*. Opinions are subjective and can’t be right or wrong (Emily), only based on erroneous information. My information is historical fact; thus I’m perfectly comfortable stating that what “Dixie” means to me is nothing good, Dixie Carter notwithstanding.

Hey, Anonymous, I’m glad you like it and the song. I find the song disgusting in its message. Doesn’t mean it’s not a catchy tune, but you won’t find me wandering the streets happily singing about the debasement of my people.

Jen and Marky–kiss and make up!!

There is all kinds of racial discrimination out there, but I don’t think that Kings of Leon or a VS model are a part of it.
Case in point: 17 years ago, I placed people into jobs at an employment agency–The only man who was in there applying stole my purse while I left the room for a minute. I filed a police report, gave them the name and address of the guy and he told me that because the man was Mexican, they couldnt question him. A cop told me this!! He had to be VERY CAREFUL because of his race.

FInally, lets be happy that they didn’t name their child Bear, Moon Unit, Apple, Pilot Inspector, Sundance or Blue!!!

JEN DC, instead of focusing on the southern history of the word ‘Dixie” try to focus on who Caleb and Lily are as people and maybe the name wont bother you so much. I honestly cannot believe that because Caleb is from the south, he is looking down on his beautiful new baby girl and purposfully giving her a name to disrespect an entire race of people.

Caleb was raised by deeply Christian parents. His father was a traveling preacher and his mom is a evanglist. The Followills always talk about traveling around preaching and spending a lot of their time with people of different colors because of the church. For all the boozing and fighting that he does he is still an extremely God-fearing man. He learned to integrate and repect people because of how he was raised in the church.

Quite frankly, when I hear the word dixie, I think of Dixie Carter or Dixie Chicks who are positive influinces in Southern History. I’m seriously tired of everything becoming about race or racial issues. That not what it’s always about. A newborn baby’s name shouldn’t inspire an spirited debate about the deep south. Good southern men have a right to take pride in who they are. It’s Caleb’s home, its where he lives, its everything about himself, his family and his music. Pick up the KOL doucmentary and learn something about the man not just a simple word. It really doesnt seem to me that he is being racist with a name. Dixie and Pearl are two of the prettiest and girliest names I have ever heard and being that her mom is a Victoria’s Secret model, it makes sense that she would want something so feminine.

I only say shame on you JEN DC, because I’d imagine your trying to teach us something that’s important about our history but you are dumbing it all down by ranting on a baby blog because of a name. I understand that part of our history and we all should never forget it so we dont go back to it, but there is such a thing as ‘crying wolf’. Everybody’s crying ‘racist’ so when it really comes up, people are just desensitized to it. And THAT should never happen.

Pick your battles more carefully JEN. I hope you dont take this as critizism or negativity. Its just a baby name and its a pretty one at that!

I appreciate that you are able to see both sides, Catca. It is a gift, one in short supply.

Meghan, given everything else that has transpired here, does it seem logical to you that, if I had found the name offensive, I would have stopped at the gentle criticism implied by “not fond of the connotations”? Or does it seem more logical to you that I would have affirmatively stated, “I think the Followills are racist, hipster twits for dumping ‘Dixie Pearl’ on their helpless li’l baby”? Ruminate on that for a while, then on the painfully obvious logical fallacy of your conclusion.

What offends me is the inability to express distaste for the name/word “Dixie” without being at the receiving end of misplaced lectures. IF IF IF (three times, so you get it) I am offended, I’m offended that my words have been misconstrued. I have been frustrated by the board’s general inability to understand my basic premise and accept my simple, straightforward explanation of my POV. It’s like plain English goes over your heads. I can’t put it any more simply than I have.

Lola, I have no need to consider the Followills as individuals, because my statement was a general one. I have also gone on to say at least once during this conversation that I don’t believe that they have chosen the name “Dixie” out of a desire to be offensive. Nay, in fact I think they have likely chosen the name to honor his place of birth and upbringing.

All I am saying, with regard to the name, is that I don’t like it. I don’t like what it connotes generally. Luckily, since I will likely never be in such proximity to these folks, it will never matter that if I had to call the newest Followill I would have to learn to do so without an internal cringe every time.

I don’t need you to agree with my assessment at all. And I won’t be ashamed for holding it or expressing my contrarian POV and if anyone needs to learn to “pick their battles,” I’d put your name, and Meghan’s and Marky’s and Leigh’s and Emily’s and Anonymous and Lauren’s before mine for failing to understand that I wasn’t fighting in the first place – at least not over “Dixie.”

So happy for the Followills – lovely family. Sure the baby will be beautiful just like her parents.

@Marky-you hit the nail on the head! being a couple is about sticking to it through the good and bad, as hard as that is at times. so many people run as soon as the waters become a little rocky…it’s too easy to get married, but hard through divorce. that is so great for you and your hubby, you are obviously wonderful soul mates that prove what love really is all about, such a gem to have, that too many people take for granted. love.

i love this couple, i love his band, she is beautiful, i hope they can make it work. can’t wait to see pic’s of their baby!! congrats to them 🙂

Catca- I’m with you. Jen DC simply stated that, as a POC from the South, she can’t stand the name Dixie because of it’s negative connections with her ancestors. She certainly didn’t deserve to be attacked for respectfully stating her opinion! I mean, really, if she were Jewish and stated that she couldn’t understand naming a child Adolph because of what Hitler did to her ancestors, would those of you that criticized her still have done so? I didn’t think so!

Awwwwww congrats to Lily and Caleb on the birth of their daughter. May Lots of love, good health and happiness be bestowed upon this family ❤