Mariah Carey Names Daughter After Marilyn

Moroccan & Monroe: Mariah Carey names her twins

(AFP) – 8 hours ago

LOS ANGELES — Singer Mariah Carey, who gave birth last week to boy and girl twins, announced on her website Wednesday that she has chosen the names Moroccan and Monroe for the infants.

In a statement, the music star said that she and husband Nick Cannon named their newborn son after the Moroccan Room -- the top floor of the New York apartment where he proposed to her, and which has Moroccan-inspired decor.

Daughter Monroe "was named after Marilyn Monroe, who has been an inspiration to Mariah her whole life," the statement said.

The pop diva has long been fascinated with Monroe: She bought the Hollywood icon's white piano from Christie's auction house, and has written into her will that the piano will one day go to the Smithsonian museum.

Carey announced last October that she was pregnant, ending months of rumors.

She revealed that she had had a miscarriage two years earlier, which explained her reluctance to go public early on in the pregnancy.

"It has been a long, emotional journey for this family, and I couldn't be happier for all of them," said her publicist, Cindi Berger, in the statement.

Carey and Cannon, a rap artist and actor, married in the Bahamas in April 2008. It was the second marriage for Carey, whose five-year union to legendary music producer Tony Mottola ended in divorce in 1998.

The singer, 41, has sold 175 million records since the start of her singing career in 1990. She is the third best-selling female artist of all time, according to the Recording Industry Association of America.