What Does “Raddix” Mean? Exploring the Etymological Roots of Cameron Diaz & Benji Madden’s Baby’s Name
This afternoon, Cameron Diaz and Benji Madden announced the birth of their daughter in an Instagram text screenshot: “Happy New Year from the Maddens! We are so happy, blessed and grateful to begin this new decade by announcing the birth of our daughter, Raddix Madden,” the couple wrote in a joint statement. “She has instantly captured our hearts and completed our family.”
Citing privacy concerns, the pair added that they won’t be sharing any photos or additional details, “other than the fact that she is really really cute!! Some would even say RAD.”
It’s probably safe to assume that the etymological roots of the baby’s name would count as “additional details,” as Diaz has been famously and intensely protective of her private life since the start of her acting career.
A heated exchange with a paparazzo was documented in a 2006 W profile, in which she told writer Christopher Bagley “I’m a very private person, and I’ve never really sold my life to the public… There was this overwhelming pressure from all sides, and I just didn’t know how to handle it.”
Although we may never know the real inspiration behind the newest addition to the pantheon of bizarre celebrity baby names, we can speculate. What does Raddix even mean? Does the fact that they threw a “rad” pun into the announcement mean that they’re trying to hint that they’re self-aware about how out-there it sounds? Is she going to go by Rad? Dix? Dixie?
Lacking any concrete answers, we turned to the internet and our 10th-grade knowledge of the Latin language.
Radix is the Latin word for “root” or “base,” both of which have a nice, wholesome, yoga-ish feel to them. The words eradicate and radish both come from this word, as does the word radical. You may recall the plural, radices, from a high school math class on logarithms.
Some other variation of Rad(d)ix(x) from around the internet include:
RADIX: A touring dance workshop series that describes itself as “the most cutting-edge dance experience in the convention industry.”
Radix: A South African financial services company that has something to do with insurance brokerage.
Raddix: a 25-year-old EDM and trap singer and DJ from Texas with ten thousand followers on Instagram, on which he holds the handle @raddixofficial (apologies to the newborn).
Radix: A Montreal art exhibition organized to raise money for Cystic Fibrosis research
Radix: a Mexican graphic t-shirt brand
Radixx: A “retail-centric alternative solution to legacy PNR-based reservations systems” for airlines. (???)
In a rambling, enthusiastic Urban Dictionary entry dated September 2014, Raddix is described as “A very spirited & energetic person to be around. Very radical and loves everyone and everyone loves him… You are lucky to have someone like this in your life. He loves life with his whole being and always laughing. This person deserves all your love and will return it 10 fold! You are blessed!”
The entry brings up more questions than it answers, the first of which is: Did someone named Raddix write this?
In conclusion… there is no conclusion. Perhaps Diaz and Madden are fans of relatively obscure EDM. Maybe they just liked the sound of a Latin word with a little spin on it. Maybe it’s a random combination of letters that means something to them.
Regardless, we wish the baby good health, happiness, and the lifelong confidence to pull off a name like Raddix.
