Of course one of the things I want to know about the candidates is what they have named their babies. And if you have more info (for example, if you know more of the middle names, which were harder to find), DO TELL.
Sarah Louise Heath Palin gets the most buzz on this topic, obv. She’s co-named five children:
- Track (boy)
- Bristol (girl)
- Willow (girl)
- Piper (girl)
- Trig (boy)
Barack Hussein Obama II has co-named two children:
- Malia Ann (girl)
- Natasha (called Sasha) (girl)
Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. has co-named four children:
- Joseph Robinette III (called Beau) (boy)
- Robert Hunter (called Hunter, the child’s mother’s maiden name) (boy)
- Naomi Christina (called Amy) (girl)
- Ashley Blazer (girl)
John Sidney McCain III has co-named five children:
- Sidney (girl)
- Meghan Savannah (girl)
- John Sidney IV (called Jack) (boy)
- James (boy)
- Bridget (girl)
Why would you name your child after a sporting venue (Track) or a type of math (Trig)? No seriously? Piper and Willow are the only names of Sarah Palin’s children that I can handle. Bristol makes me think of Thanksgiving turkey (Bristol Farms).
I like the first names of Joseph Biden’s children but am not a fan of a couple of middle names. Robinette? He’s a boy, so why not just Robin? These days Robin is more of a girl’s name anyway. I’m thinking it might have been a family name? And Blazer?! That’s just silly. I think its also interesting that out of 4 children they only call one by their given first name.
I love the names Natasha and Malia (Obama), and Sidney, Meghan, Jack, James, and Bridget are nice too, especially together. Although I think its odd that they gave Sidney as a middle name to John IV when they already gave it as a first name to their daughter.
Palin wins on best names! I’d love to know their middle names.
I would have never got sasha from natasha.
i like amy for naomi. my name is shortened something like that as it’s a much older name from a grandmother. the shortened version is more my age. i’m totally on board with that.
blazer is cool.
i like family names so the sidney does it for me too! i can see naming john sidney as the fathers name and also giving it to sidney as a first name since perhaps they may not have had boys.
Trig is apparently Trig Paxson Van Palin. Supposedly they are avid Van Halen fans, hence the Van Palin!?
I’m not quite getting Amy from Naomi….
I do like the McCain children’s names, they sound good together
Willow has been at the top of my girl name list for years. Piper is also one of my favorites.
I can’t get on board with the rest. Track is something a train runs on. Bristol is somewhere in England (but NOT a place name that I like), and Trig reminds me of math, which I hate.
Obama and McCain have the most sense naming their children, it seems. The names “go” together and sound nice rolling off the tongue one after the other.
Biden’s kids have lovely names, but I’m upset they don’t call them by any of them, although I [heart] the name Beau, but I don’t see where it came from Joseph Robinette. I also don’t see Amy from Naomi (why would you truncate such a beautiful name?), so maybe they have some system for nicknames I just don’t get.
I heard that “Trig” is Norse for “strength.”
I heart the name Sasha.
Darn, not a SINGLE flawless bunch! I guess Biden comes closest to good naming.
Palin’s flaws:
Everything but Willow and possibly Trig.
McCain’s flaws: Sidney and Meghan
Biden’s flaws: Ashley
Obama’s flaws: Natasha
Bristol and Willow are both Alaska place names. I do NOT get Track or Trig. WTF??
I also do not get using Amy for Naomi. That is just weird!!!
John McCain actually has seven children. While his older two he would not have helpd name (because he adopted them when he married their mother), they are his and bear his name. Doug and Andy McCain. His daughter Sidney is from that marriage. The next two are with his wife, Cindy and his youngest daughter was adopted with Cindy.
Here’s a nice little article concerning Mr. McCain’s preference to keep them out of the limelight. (I hope the link works. You’ll have to copy and paste it.)
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/12/27/mccains_children_avoid_the_limelight/
I think Palin’s kids’ names sound like they were named by a hippy-dippy tree hugger. (Speaking as a hippy-dippy treehugger myself.) They are AWFUL. Does anyone else think of the song “The Bristol Stomp” when they hear Bristol? As for McCain, he used Sidney twice because it’s his middle name. I’m not so much for the Biden nickname thing, and the Blazer for a middle name may well be a family name — it’s a surname in my husband’s family. I’m not a big fan of the Obama girls’ names, but I have no particular reason.
Bethtastic- That’s why I had to use the awkward verb “co-named x children” instead of just saying “has x children.”
Such an interesting post! I love Trig Paxon Van Palen but if I ever tried to pull of something like that my mother would never speak to me again. I despise putting an h in the name megan, it’s so pretty without it and the added letter makes it look pretentious. I LOVE LOVE LOVE it when parents give a child the mother’s maiden name, especially when it’s a good one like Hunter. My maiden name is Humbert and if you’ve ever read Lolita, you’d know that name choice is OUT. I wonder if Sidney is McCain’s mother’s maiden name?
Robinette is a surname.
“Blazer” is an odd middle name.
“Sasha” is the traditional Russian pet name for the longer name Natasha.
All of Palin’s children have names that are very self-consciously cool. However, I’ve encountered the name Trig before: it also was a surname.
I like picking and choosing. As a whole, McCain’s children have the most classic and easy-to-live-with names, which are my taste.
Palin:
The most discombobulated set of the bunch. The only name I remotely like is Willow, and much prefer Willa. However, when taken out of the context of the set, most of the names surprisingly work with the last name, with the exception of Piper Palin – I‘m anti-alliteration. For example, I hate the names Track and Bristol, but Track Palin and Bristol Palin, don’t sound or look bad to me.
Obama:
Overall his names are ok, but nothing special – IMO. Malia Ann – sounds boring to me.
Natasha – a name I can appreciate but would never use. I think Sasha is a clever nickname
Biden:
His names are my second favorite of the candidate’s kids. But I also don’t get the nicknames. Naomi is my favorite, and I like Amy as a full name or a nickname, but see no need to nickname Naomi. Robinette doesn’t bother me, because it is a middle name, and it is a family name. Blazer is kind of odd, but at least they stuck it in the middle.
McCain:
Overall I like his names the best. Bridget is my favorite. Don’t care much for the pointless “h” in the middle of Meghan; I much prefer Megan. Sidney isn’t really my style for a girl, but I like that he passed on his middle name, in case he never had a boy as an heir to his name.
I think Obama’s girls have really awesome names. Exactly what you would expect for multi-cultural city girls with highly educated parents. Truly perfect.
I love all of Palin’s name choices.
I think Palin’s choices are mornonic, but that might be the fact that I dispise her……
I love, love, love the name Malia. It has shot to the top of my girl list. Not as big of fan as Sasha.
The Biden names are interesting. I had wondered how they had ended up with a Hunter almost 40 years ago. To me that seems more of a name you saw 10-15 years ago. But the maiden name of the mother answers that.
The McCain names are fine, but really don’t seem to go together.
As an Obama/Biden supporter, I think it’s unfortunate that Biden’s kids’ names have such a WASPy, country club air. Then again maybe I’m the only one who’d notice that.
Sidney AND John Sidney? No thank you.