Palin: The hot new baby name
The number of parents naming girls after Sarah Palin jumped nearly seven-fold after the Mama Grizzly burst onto the national scene, says Sue Kidd at TODAY Moms

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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