Nikki Bella's Baby Boy Already Has the Cutest Little Nickname
We can’t believe it’s already been one month since Nikki Bella and Artem Chigvintsev’s baby boy was born! On Sunday, the proud papa shared a photo of baby Matteo bundled up in his arms atop an outer space-printed lounger pillow. The newborn looks cozy wearing cactus print PJs in his dad’s embrace — and even has an adorable little smirk to show for it. And while the photo was beyond adorable, it was the caption that captured our interest, because it gave us another glimpse into the inner life of this sweet family and clued us in to baby Matteo’s nickname. It’s seriously the cutest.
On Instagram, the dad of one captioned the photo of Matteo smiling in his arms with, “Happy 1 month my little Teo ?.” Artem is of Russian descent, but Nikki is of Mexican and Italian descent, which is likely one reason why they chose the name Matteo: meaning ‘gift of god’ in Italian. As for that sweet little nickname, the Total Bellas mom and Dancing With the Stars dad could have gone with Matt or Matty, but they chose to go with Teo, which is actually Spanish and means “God.” This root word is abbreviated from names like Mateo and Teodor.
In an interview with PEOPLE, Nikki gave more details about her baby’s name: when she was pregnant, her trainer was talking about his son Matteo and the strength he has when he gets knocked down. “So I came home and I go, ‘Artem, if we’re having a boy, his name’s Matteo.’ I got this feeling when my trainer was talking about him.”
We hope that his godly name (shortened or not) gives him strength like Nikki’s trainer says about his own son Matteo!
Before you go, check out our gallery of more unique celebrity baby names:
Launch Gallery: Dessert, Antarctica & More Weird & Wonderful Celebrity Baby Names
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