Grammy-winning singer-songwriter, actor, and Member of the Order of the British Empire (but not knight) Ed Sheeran can now add another title to his resume: father.
Sheeran broke his eight month social media hiatus to share the life update with his 31 million followers via an Instagram post. The image showed a pair of baby socks laying on a baby blanket.
“Last week, with the help of an amazing delivery team, Cherry gave birth to our beautiful and healthy daughter - Lyra Antarctica Seaborn Sheeran,” wrote Sheeran in the caption. “We are completely in love with her. 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 x”
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At first glance, the alliteration of Seaborn-Sheeran looks like an obvious reference to her dad’s musical and lyrical leanings. The name Lyra has different roots (Latin and Greek) but always means ties back to the word “lyre,” an instrument made popular because of the lore associated with it. In Greek mythology, the lyre was the first instrument ever created. It was made from a tortoise shell by the messenger god Hermes and given to Apollo — who then gave it to his half-mortal son Orpheus. The lyre was infused with magic, powerful enough to charm people and even inanimate objects like trees, streams, and rocks. Upon Orpheus' death, Zeus threw the instrument in the sky, and it became the visible constellation Lyra.
Lyra’s name could also be a reference to the popular book and HBO series His Dark Materials. The story follows a girl named Lyra Belacqua on a journey between parallel worlds as she tries to uncover the truth behind a magical conspiracy. Sheeran is a fan of the Philip Pullman book series, tweeting in 2015 that His Dark Materials was “the best books I’ve ever read,” so it’s definitely likely that he named his firstborn after the brave young heroine of his favourite story.
Bar far, Philip Pullman - his dark materials are the best books I've ever read.
— Ed Sheeran (@edsheeran) June 13, 2015
As for Lyra's middle name, Antarctica, perhaps it's the only continent that Sheeran hasn't visited yet? He and Seaborn travelled the world for a year before the singer settled down to record Divide, their travels taking them to Iceland, Japan, and many other countries — maybe Antarctica was somewhere on their list of places to see.
The arrival of Sheeran and Seaborn's daughter comes almost two years after their private nuptials in 2019, confirmed in the song "Remember the Name." The couple, who met when they were children attending the same secondary school in Suffolk, England, famously had their first date at Taylor Swift's 2015 Fourth of July party, and the rest was history. Seaborn is the inspiration for many of Sheeran's most popular love songs, including the go-to wedding song of 2017, "Perfect."