Jim and Pam's firstborn, Cecelia Marie Halpert, has quite the story behind her name.
On the latest episode of Stitcher's Office Ladies podcast, co-hosts Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey chatted all about the Season 6 episode, "The Delivery." They welcomed two special guests to the podcast: Fischer's husband, Lee Kirk, and her sister, Emily Fischer. And they shared some delightful context about why the name "Cece" was chosen for JAM's baby.
"Fast fact number one: Pam and Jim's baby is named after my niece," Fischer explained.
Now, diehard fans of The Office may have known this first part already, but for those who don't here's a quick recap.
The baby name inspo
"So, the same week that we were shooting this episode, my sister Emily gave birth to her first child, a daughter. It was so crazy," Fischer said. "Literally the day we shot Pam going to the hospital was the day my sister came home from the hospital. So in my family — I was going to say my parents would joke that they had one kid doing it for real and one kid pretending all at the same time. So my sister had told me ahead of time what they were planning to name their daughter. So I went to the writers and I asked if we could name Pam and Jim's baby after my niece, and they said yes."
I remember sitting at home that night that the episode aired, and I just kept watching the clock.
Though the writers approved Fischer's request, she decided to keep it a secret until the episode aired. She didn't tell her sister, her parents, or anyone in her family. They all found out baby Halpert's name live, along with the rest of the show's fans.
"I remember sitting at home that night that the episode aired, and I just kept watching the clock," Fischer said. "And sure enough, like 30 seconds after it went live, my phone started ringing and it was my sister. And she was just screaming into the phone."
Jenna Fischer's sister Emily on learning Cece Halpert's name
In prepping for the podcast, Fischer reached out to her sister Emily and asked her to send over a voice recording of her reaction to the Cece reveal. Here's what she had to say.
"So I can remember back when we were watching the episode where Pam and Jim have their baby. I remember thinking ahead of time like, 'Oh, I wonder what they're going to name the baby.' And I wanted to ask Jenna, but we had an agreement ever since the show started that she would never give me any spoilers, because I wanted to find out when everybody else did what was going to happen on the show," Emily said. "And so that was kind of like our — I shouldn't say unspoken rule — but that was kind of the agreement that we had from the day that the show started."
Emily explained that since she was a sleep-deprived new mom, it took a few seconds for the Halpert baby name to register with her, but once it did, she was overjoyed.
"At that time we were watching The Office and I was like so excited in anticipation. I'm like, 'Oh, I wonder what it's going to be.' And then all of a sudden, Jim walked out and he was like, 'Cecelia Marie Halpert.' And I was like, 'Aww!' And I was like, 'Oh my God! Oh my gosh! That's our daughter's name! Oh my gosh! Did they name the baby after our Cecilia Marie?' And I got so excited to call my sister right away. And I was like, 'Wait a second!' And she just started laughing, and she was like, 'Yeah, is that OK that we did that?'" Emily recalled.
And I was like, 'Oh my God! Oh my gosh! That's our daughter's name! Oh my gosh! Did they name the baby after our Cecilia Marie?'
"And of course, I was like crying. And I was like, 'Oh, my gosh, that's so cool.' And so after that episode aired all the articles and everything came out about how they'd named the Cece on the show after my Cece. And we saved all those articles. We put them in my daughter's baby book," she shared. "And I still remember for quite some time after that, people were like, 'Oh, do you watch that show The Office? Did you name your baby after Pam and Jim's baby?' And I always enjoyed setting people straight. I was like, 'Oh, no, no, no, no. I'm sorry. See, Pam and Jim's baby was named after my baby.' So that was always really fun to do after the [episode] aired."
The real-life Cecelia Marie has even more Office connections
For the rest of time, the real-life Cecelia Marie and The Office will be linked. And not just because JAM's baby was named after her.
"So my niece, Cece, she is the age that Cece Halpert would be. And whenever we go out together and I'm calling her Cece and people see us together, it like is a real mind bender for them," Fischer explained. "I didn't think about that part."
Fischer also explained that the baby photo on Pam's desk for the remainder of the series is a baby photo of her niece Cece.
"That is so sweet," Kinsey said.
"It's like a really special thing in our family," Fischer replied. "But here's another thing that's funny. Cece's dad's name in real life is Dwight. And her grandpa's name is Jim."
"This is craziness," Kinsey laughed.
"So we've really created something there for that family," Fischer said. "So. Yeah."
Be sure to check out the full podcast episode to hear more behind-the-scenes stories about filming the episode, "The Delivery, Part 2."
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