OBAMA: The Most
Popular Name in the World
President-Elect Barack Obama often jokes about his
unique name.
Now that he is the' most powerful and well-known man
in the world, people no longer have trouble pronouncing
the name, which he inherited from his Kenyan-bom father.
The name Barack means "blessing" in Kiswahili.
Since his victory in the November General Election,
Obama's name -has become super popular. Parents are nam
ing their newborns after^the President-Elect, towns and
cities are searching forVoads,
- From The Associated Press
? A school in Long Island, N.Y., has been renamed
Barack Obama Elementary School in honor of his historic
rise to the presidency. ?
"When I'm older I'm going to look back and say I went
to Barack Obama Elementary School," said fifth-grader
Teonte Jackson, who played Obama in a mock presidential
debate before the election. "He had the guts to run for pres
ident and believe in him
buildings and just about anything
else that they can stick the histo
ry-makfcr's name on Here are
just a few examples of the Obama
name blitz.
? Mothers in Kenya have
marked Barack Obama's historic
win in the US presidential erec
tions by naming their newborns
after him and his wife. "
More than half of the babies
born in a Kisumu Hospital on the
day after the election were named
either Barack or Michelle
Obama.
Kisumu is close to the village
where Mr. Obama's father was
born and raised and Mr. Obama is
a local hero. Out of 15 babies
born in the New Nyanza
Provincial Hospital in the west
ern city of Kisumu on Wednesday
(Nov. 5), five boys were named
Barack Obama and three girls
were called Michelle.
- From the BBC News
? A Hollywood, Fla. couple
became among the country's first
to bestow the name Barack
Obama on their child, even
before most had declared the
Illinois senator the president
REUTERS Photo by Thonuu Mukoya
Kenyan Nancy Otieno holds her newborn baby boy on
Nov. 5, 2008. She named him after President-elect
Barack Obama.
self."
- From The Associated
Press
__
? In central Alabama's
Perry County, government
workers already get a day
off for President's Day,
Martin Luther King Day,
and Veterans Day. In 2009,
they'll get one more:
"Barack Obama Day."
The rural county, which
overwhelmingly supported
Obama in last month's pres
idential election, has
approved the second
Monday in November as
"The Barack Obama Day."
Commissioners passed a
measure that would close
county offices for the new
annual holiday and RT"
roughly 40 workers will get
a paid day off.
- From The Associated
Press
? Antigua's prime minis
ter wants to rename the
island's highest mountain
peak "Mount Obama" in
honor of the U.S. president
elect.
elect.
Sanjae Obama Fisher was born at 8 p.m. on Tuesday,
Nov. 4, 2008 (Election Day) at Hollywood's Memorial
Regional Hospital to Patrick and Sasha Hall Fisher.
- From The Associated Press
? They call him The Little President, all 7 pounds, 2
ounces of him. Just like President-elect Barack Obama, he
made a big impression on the world on Tuesday, Nov. 4.
At 4:16 p.m., as after-work voters started to line up, Pierre
Obama Adell Willis was born at Grady Hospital in Atlanta.
Even if Obama hadn't won the election. The Little
President's mother, Atlantan Kimberly Wise, was firm in
her choice.
- From The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
? One South Florida city is planning to honor the presi
dent-elect with his own street. Opa-locka plans to rename
Perviz Avenue to Barack Obama Avfcnue on President's
^ Day in February.
"Boggy Peak," as it is currently known, soars more
than 1 ,300 feet over the island's southern point and serves
as a transmission site for broadcast and telecommunication
providers. It also is a popular hiking spot.
Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer announced the plans
Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2008, in a congratulatory letter to
President-elect Obama.
- From The Associated Press
? The central avenue in Naquera, a town of 5,000 peo
ple in the eastern region of Valencia, Spain is currently
named after Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera, the founder of
the right-wing Falange movement and Franco's ideological
mentor.
But the mayor of the town has proposed to rename the
main thoroughfare 'Calle Barack Obama' because the pres
ident-elect symbolizes "unity among different races and
the fight against racism."
- From The Telegraph of Great Britain
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