Colin Jost’s Mom Didn’t ‘Understand’ Why His Son With Scarlett Johansson Is Named Cosmo

Scarlett Johansson and Colin Jost named their son Cosmo, but Jost’s mother didn’t understand why. 

Despite having a ‘very supportive’ family, Jost told Seth Myers on The Late Show that his mom was ‘slightly thrown’ by their choice of name for their son.

Jost detailed how the couple had decided on the name long before Cosmo was delivered in hospital, however, his mother has since been trying to get it changed.

‘My mom, I would say, was slightly thrown by it and didn’t quite understand it. I don’t know if she thought it was kind of like a hippie thing,’ he said.

After three or four days, Jost noted that his mother called to ask if the name was now ‘final’. She asked if the birth certificate had been submitted and when they confirmed they had, she called the choice ‘interesting’.

‘Because I was reading that there’s also a name Cosimo with an ‘I’, so that could also be an option. Maybe Cosimo, that’s his real name, but then you can call him still Cosmo,’ she said.

Jost told Meyers that he wasn’t sure why his mother preferred the name Cosimo, but said that she has come around since having spoken to neighbourhood friends in Staten Island.

He said: 

Eventually she started meeting various members of the Italian community who have a lot of Cosmo relatives.

And so then she would call, and she would say, ‘I met someone – they said their uncle’s name is Cosmo. So it is OK.’

However, she did then proceed to suggest alternatives such as Cosmos, after a patron saint as ‘another option’. Jost said how they thanked his mum, but didn’t need ‘more worse variants on Cosmo’.

Johansson and Jost first met in 2006 on the set of Saturday Night Live when Johansson was hosting and Jost was a writer.