The Name Game

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

I can remember a time when it was a popular concept to name babies after prominent Americans, particularly historical figures. Thomas Jefferson Jones, Benjamin Franklin Brown, and George Washington Smith were all common occurrences. I went to school with a Dwight, and even knew a Lyndon. But, for the most part, babies today are more apt to be named after athletes, movie stars, and soap opera characters.

It now looks as though there is a boomlet emerging for naming babies after our new President-elect, especially in Africa. The day after the election last week, six of ten baby boys born in Sierra Leone's main maternity hospital were named Barack Obama. From election day until this past Saturday, forty-three children born at the Nyanza Provincial Hospital in Kisumu, Kenya, were named after the Obamas: the twenty-three boys were named Barack Obama, and the twenty girls are now known as Michelle Obama. Another news report stated that in the past few days Barack, Michelle, Malia, Sasha, and Obama have become very popular first and middle names for babies across the United States.

Everyone seems to be anxious to hang an Obama tag on their babies. Sheikh Abdullah, the leader of 8,000 Bedouin tribesmen in the Galilee section of northern Israel, has disclosed that he believes his entire tribe is loosely related to our next President. He said that Africans came to work in Palestine during the early part of this century, and that one of those men was a relative of Obama's grandmother who left some of his genetics behind. The Shiekh says that several men in his tribe look remarkably like Obama. Two baby boys born to the tribe this week have been named Barack Obama.

So there are legions of babies around the world being named after the Obamas. That's a good thing. It's a tribute to our next President and to the good people of America. We have elected a leader who is seen as a beacon of hope to the rest of the world, a man of peace who isn't afraid to take a world view of the future. May he be worthy of all of those children who will bear his name.