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November 19, 2008
Obama baby names, other than Obama
I've spent some time in upper Manhattan first grade classrooms lately, and noticed more than one little kid with a "NEVAEH" nametag on their bookbag or cubbyhole. The Times reported on the heaven-backwards trend in baby names in 2006, when it was the 70th most popular name for girls, and the Social Security Administration says it's up to 31 as of last year. As a girl's name, that is. Makes me feel bad for the one little boy Nevaeh I met yesterday who ended up on the losing gender of that particular trend.
Right after the election, Chief Baby Name Correspondent Jennifer 8. Lee told us about parents naming their babies after Obama, though DC's little Obama Alhaji Kabineh Kabba seems to be leading the trend--he's already 6 months old.
Obama-loving expectant parents out there don't have to follow the crowd. And there might be a bunch of them soon--Newsweek reports lots of people got busy on election-night (HuffPost describes the phenomenon as "Yes We Did It".)
Those looking to commemorate that special night with a special baby name might follow the lead of P.O.D. singer Sonny Sandoval with his inexplicable backwards baby name and go for Amabo. It means "I will love" in Latin, which sounds sort of hokey and weirdly Biblical, and captures some of the messianic expectations people have for the real Obama these days.
Or how about Kcarab? The K is silent. Unfortunately that sounds like those carob-covered raisins and peanuts my mom used to buy as some cruddy supposedly healthy alternative to chocolate. Gross.
categories:
Culture, Politics, Sex
posted by amy at 3:17 PM | #
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Comments
What was I doing there? Mostly being jealous of these cool orange skirts the girls wore as their uniforms.
When I was in first grade, I somehow got sent to the one Catholic school that didn't have uniforms, which totally defeats the point of Catholic school.
Posted by: amy at November 20, 2008 4:40 PM
What, no Husseins?
I like the idea of Michelle becoming a more popular girls' name. And I didn't realize that Nevaeh was popular in cities - I always thought it was Bible beltish.
Posted by: T-Rock at November 21, 2008 1:23 PM
what ever it is, the baby is sooooooooo Cute. Definitely going to be a future material!!
Paul
Posted by: Animax at November 27, 2008 2:31 AM
The baby is so cute..maybe we don't know it will be a president soon...We don't know the play of life:)
Posted by: baby names list at February 9, 2009 9:48 PM
What have you been doing in first grade classrooms?
Posted by: Marcy at November 20, 2008 4:00 PM