On Tuesday afternoon, the “Shape of You” singer announced the arrival of he and his wife Cherry Seaborn’s daughter, Lyra Antarctica Seaborn Sheeran. Try saying that ten times fast.
“Ello,” he wrote in a post on Instagram of a pair of adorable little baby socks revealing the news to the world. “A quick message from me as I have some personal news that I wanted to share with you…”
“Last week, with the help of an amazing delivery team, Cherry gave birth to our beautiful and healthy daughter—Lyra Antarctica Seaborn Sheeran. We are completely in love with her.”
Sheeran continued, confessing that he and Cherry were “completely in love with” their daughter. “Both mum and baby are doing amazing and we are on cloud nine over here. We hope that you can respect our privacy at this time. Lots of love and I’ll see you when it’s time to come back, Ed.”
What does Ed Sheeran’s baby’s name mean?
The verdict is still out there as to where the name “Lyra Antarctica” comes from. So far, there’s two theories circulating the internet.
First, there’s the musical connotations of the name “Lyra.” According to The Cut, “Lyra” could be a callback to the lyre of Orpheus in Greek mythology, an instrument that plays in a scene from the ancient Greek epic poem The Argonautica to drown out the hypnotic song of the sirens. It also, apparently, is the name of a constellation usually represented by an eagle carrying a lyre.
But, a more reasonable and obvious choice could be that Ed Sheeran named his daughter after the lead character in His Dark Materials by Phillip Pullman, Lyra Silvertongue—which, FYI, is Sheeran’s favourite book.
As for the second half of Lyra’s name, according to Hit, Ed and Cherry looove Antarctica and took a trip to the icy South Pole nine months before Lyra arrived. So, maybe Lyra was partly named after that in honour of them, well, making her there…
The announcement comes after a nine-month-long hiatus from Instagram, when the 29-year-old singer shared that he was taking a much deserved break from work to be with his family. Looking back now, we suspect the decision came after Cherry first became pregnant. Perhaps his next album will be all about being a baby daddy?
Sheeran and Seaborn first started dating in 2015. The pair got married in February 2019 in a private intimate ceremony with only 40 guests.
