Thomas Rhett and his wife, Lauren Akins, welcomed Brave Elijah, their fifth child and first son, into the world on February 27. Rhett knows his son’s name is unique, but he is now clarifying where the name came from, after originally saying he and Akins got the idea when he was drinking wine, and the name of it was Mt. Brave.
“I’ve actually seen a lot of articles on the internet that say, ‘Thomas Rhett names his son after a bottle of wine,'” Rhett tells People. “That makes me so mad because I didn’t name him after a wine. It was just like the wine was called Mt. Brave. When I saw the name Brave on that bottle, it just hit me, like, ‘Wow, I’ve never thought about the name Brave for a kid.’ Then you start going through all the things that just being brave means.”
“My wife and I just started throwing that name around, and it really started to stick,” he adds. “Once we started to say, ‘Oh, little Brave, Brave boy, Brave man,’ it just started to feel like such a strong name.”
What Life Is Like For Thomas Rhett With 5 Children
Rhett previously admitted that he and Akins were “in the weeds” with five children at home. But now, fortunately, life is getting a bit easier for the couple.
“It is starting to feel different now. … He’s starting to look like me,” Rhett says. “He’s finally making facial expressions, so you can talk to him and he’ll laugh. He’s starting to figure out what he does and does not like, how he wants to be held, and how he doesn’t want to be held, and what kind of bottle we’re feeding. He’s got opinions now.”
Rhett is also enjoying Brave leaving the newborn phase, and watching him grow and evolve.
“His little personality is really starting to show through,” Rhett reveals. “It wasn’t really until about a week ago that it really hit me, and it’s like, dang, I have a boy now.”
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Thomas Rhett’s Commitment to Savoring Every Moment
Life may be chaotic with five children and his superstar career. Still, the 36-year-old is making sure he soaks up every moment.
“It’s a season, and I’m really trying to not let it slip me by,” Rhett says on Audacy. “I’m not trying to wish it away. [I’m] really just trying to, when I’m home, just be extremely present. It kind of dawned on me the other day that my oldest child, she’s ten, so I have eight summers left with her. When you start thinking about it in terms of like, ‘Whoa, eight years,’ it seems like a long time. But it’s been six years since COVID, and it kind of feels like it was yesterday in some capacity, so that’s how quick time is moving.”
In addition to ten-year-old Willa Gray, Rhett and Akins also have eight-year-old Ada James, six-year-old Lennon Love, and Lillie Carolina, who is four.