A nepo baby is a performer, model or media figure whose career is believed to have had a head start thanks to famous parents. The phrase is short for nepotism baby, and it became one of the internet’s favourite parlour games in 2022, when TikTok users began tracing the family trees of young television stars and discovering how many came with a well-known surname attached. That December, New York magazine’s Vulture turned the subject into a cover showing famous offspring as newborns in a star-studded maternity ward, and in 2023 Collins Dictionary put nepo baby on its word-of-the-year shortlist.
The idea is far older than social media. Nepotism entered English in the late 1600s, inspired by a 1667 Italian book about the popes’ nephews, who had a remarkable knack for landing excellent jobs. Show business simply updated the family album.