How did the 2008 election influence baby names?

Five years from now there are likely to be a lot of little kids with the name Barack, Obama, Sasha or Willow in kindergarten classrooms across the United States. Why? Because according to news reports across the country, there have been a large number of new babies born that have been given our 44th president’s name or have been inspired by his family or by Republican VP nominee Sarah Palin's unusual baby name choices.

According to statistics filed with the Social Security Administration, this is not unusual. While the more common names of presidents have been high on the list of new baby names, more unusual names have jumped in the rankings within the first couple of years of a president’s term. Dwight, Lyndon and Theodore all rose drastically in popularity in the decade following the presidential elections.

President Obama isn’t the only person in his family whose name new parents are borrowing. There have also been many reports of moms and dads getting inspiration for their daughter’s first and middle names from Obama’s daughters, Malia and Sasha. It may be hard to tell the impact of the name Michelle however, since it was already a very popular name for a girl prior to an election.

Barack Obama isn’t the only big name that became popular and got lots of attention in this election however. Normally there isn’t much interest in the vice-presidential nominees and their families, but this year, the Republican vice-presidential nominee in 2008 broke that trend. Sarah Palin, who is a mother to young children herself, stirred up a lot of questions regarding not only her politics but her family.

Sarah did not go with common and popular names when she named her children Track, Piper, Bristol, Willow and Trig. There are definitely the contemporary citizens who shun the more liberal names that Sarah picked, however there are many out there who are influenced by the unusual names. While Sarah has always been high in the statistics for popular baby names, hospitals across the country are reporting a rise in names such as Piper and Bristol. Is there a chance that all of the non-original names will make a jump on the baby naming charts?

What is the significance behind Sarah's name choices? Her youngest son, Trig Paxson Van Palin, may have had some inspiration from rockers Van Halen, as Sarah joked 'Van Palin' sounds like Van Halen. His middle name, Paxson, is named after "one of the most beautiful spots in Alaska," she had told MSNBC. Bristol and Willow are both towns in Alaska. As far as the name of their youngest daughter, Piper, Todd Palin said: "You know, there's just not too many Pipers out there and its a cool name."

In case you missed it, back in October there was a man that opted to name his daughter after both Republican candidates, even though he did not have his wife’s approval. While the new mother was still knocked out from delivery medication, the father changed the name on the birth certificate from Ava Grace, to Sarah McCain Palin Ciptak. The wife, who did not know about it for several days, was later described to be understanding of the situation. In Tennessee, where the name switch took place, a couple is allowed to legally change the name of a new baby for up to the first year. I guess it remains to be seen if the name sticks, or if the baby girl is renamed.

As we have seen, there is no limit on baby names and no rules on what is a good or bad name for you to name your baby. In the majority of cases, people will not immediately associate your new baby's name with the name of a president, a former president, or a member of family of a president. However, with more uncommon names, like Barack Obama, you may get comments for a few years on whether or not you named your baby that intentionally.

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