“I’m Mr. Brady, Picking Up Brady”: Naming Conventions and the WASP-y Stasis of Sex and the City

Let’s talk about Sex and the City. Not the cosmopolitans. Not the shoes. Not Big. Let’s talk about baby names — specifically, the very revealing choice to name Miranda Hobbes’ child Brady Hobbes.

On paper, it seems like nothing. But the decision to name a child Brady — his father’s last name — as his first name, while giving him the mother’s last name as a surname, is a masterclass in performative progressivism. It’s a name that nods at tradition while pretending to reject it. It’s the naming equivalent of a pant-suit with pearls.

Two First Names, No Real Change

Miranda is a feminist lawyer. She resists the patriarchy. She challenges gender roles. And yet, when it comes time to name her son, she ends up with Brady Hobbes — a name that sounds like he’s destined for lacrosse, a hedge fund, or a light domestic scandal in Connecticut.

Let’s be real: naming your kid Brady, when the father’s name is Steve Brady, isn’t progressive. It’s just cloning your baby’s identity off his dad and pretending it’s innovation. “Look! We didn’t use the father’s last name!” But you did. You used it twice. It’s not just Steve’s surname anymore. It’s the child’s first name, too. That’s not subversion — that’s assimilation with better PR.

The Beige Lexicon of SITC Naming Culture

Throughout the show, the baby names are aggressively safe.

• Lily
• Rock
• Brady
• Rose

They reek of private schools, Whole Foods, and curated Instagram grids with “Live Laugh Love” energy. You’ll find these names etched into ethically sourced wooden toys, not spray-painted on the back of a skateboard.

Even when characters seem to take risks (Rock, Charlotte’s nonbinary child), the names never truly leave the white, bourgeois safety zone. Imagine if Charlotte had adopted a child from a different cultural background and didn’t rename them “Lily.” That would’ve been brave. But bravery, in Sex and the City, ends at the hemline.

Steve Brady at Kindergarten: The Absurdity of Surname Recycling

There’s a scene I imagine often: Steve Brady shows up to pick up his son from kindergarten.

“Hi, I’m Mr. Brady. I’m here to pick up Brady.

Do the teachers assume he’s confused? That he’s repeating himself? Does the child turn around, thinking he’s being addressed by his full name? It’s sitcom gold, but it’s also a bureaucratic mess.

Naming a child after their father’s surname only works if that surname sounds “first-namey.” Brady does. If Steve had been called Murphy, or Goldberg, or Nguyen, would Miranda have named the child Murphy Hobbes? No chance. It passed the whiteness test. Brady is neutral. It’s cultural tofu. You can project anything onto it — and the show does.

4. What Could’ve Been: Jaxon Brady-Hobbes

Let’s say, for argument’s sake, they went bolder. Named him Jaxon Brady-Hobbes.

• Honors both parents
• Avoids the confusing Brady/Brady issue
• Signals a post-patriarchal family structure
• Sounds like a real human being, not a backup NFL quarterback

But the writers didn’t go there. Because Sex and the City, for all its talk of independence and modern womanhood, is structurally conservative. The girls have sex, but they all want the ring. They joke about men, but they still chase Big. They go to therapy, but only after shopping.

Even Miranda — arguably the show’s most progressive character — opts for the illusion of rebellion over the discomfort of real change. Naming the child Brady Hobbes lets her pretend she’s bucking tradition, while still making it easy for Steve, her in-laws, and the viewers to digest.

What’s in a Name? Everything.

In a show obsessed with appearances, status, and identity, names matter. And this one tells us what Sex and the City has always quietly whispered behind the stilettos and brunches:

You can challenge the system — just don’t make it look too weird on paper.

Because in the end, Brady Hobbes isn’t just a kid. He’s a product of his environment: Upper West Side values, liberal packaging, conservative structure. A legacy character in a world that wanted evolution but never quite had the nerve.