Palin: The hot new baby name

It may never catch up with Emily or Madison, says Sue Kidd at TODAY Moms, but "Palin" is gaining "traction" as a name for baby girls. The number of Palins recorded at BabyCenter.com grew from three per 1 million babies in 2008 to 20 per 1 million in 2009. Were fans paying homage? "You betcha!" The spike came immediately after Palin's unsuccessful run for vice president on the Republican ticket. It dropped a bit in 2010, to 16 per 1 million. Sure, with those numbers, it's still highly unlikely you'll run into a tiny Palin on the playground. But it's more likely than running into a "baby Barack," even though that name got a post-election bump, too. Why aren't there even more Palins and Baracks in the sandbox? Here, an excerpt:

Blame Nixon. ... Post-Watergate, it became too risky to name a baby after a politician. A good politician today could be mired in lifelong scandal tomorrow. ...

But there is one measurable trend with political names — naming babies after politicians' children. While Palin and Barack may not overrun the playgrounds in a couple years, their children will. Malia, Sasha, Bristol, Willow and Piper are all trending upward in name popularity.

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Read the entire piece at TODAY Moms.