Meet Mark Wahlberg’s 4 Kids

Mark Wahlberg and wife Rhea Durham seamlessly added to their tribe on March 21, 2006, when the couple introduced their first son, Michael Wahlberg, into their ever-growing family. Like their eldest daughter, Ella Wahlberg, Michael Wahlberg shares symbolic ties to a late family member. According to Mark, his late father, Donald Wahlberg, unknowingly gave him an idea of what to name his first son. In an interview with Esquire, Mark told the publication that his father never called him by his actual name. “Well, he used to call me Monkey, and I started to get really annoyed with it,” he said. “So I had my first sit-down heart-to-heart with my dad, and I said, ‘Dad, I got to talk to you. I don’t like the name Monkey.’ So he’s like, ‘Well, I’m sorry. I won’t ever call you that again. What do you want me to call you?’ And I said, ‘I like the name Mike.’”

From then on, his father continued to call the actor Mike. Once Mark learned that Rhea Durham was pregnant with his first son, Mark used this opportunity to name his son the same name his father used to call him. Though Michael never got to see his grandfather a lot before he passed in 2008, Mark told Esquire that Donald was seemingly happy with the name, stating: “When I told him I named my first son Mike, he got a big smile on his face.”