According to the BBC, "Barack" and "Michelle" are the hot names for Kenyan infants. Chris Blattman reflects:
My first job in Africa was running a follow-up survey in western Kenya--chasing down 8,000 primary school students 5 years after they'd received a randomized health intervention. More than a third had moved away, and we searched high and low around the country for more than a year.The name list was a Who's Who of the globe's political class. There were Bill Clinton Ojiambos and Bin Ladin Odongos. There were George Bush Jumas and Hillary Clinton Awinos.My favorite moment: in 2003, shortly after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, an exasperated enumerator came to me, "I've been looking all day," she said, "and I just can't find this Saddam Hussein."But the best name of the bunch was undisputed: Orange Velvet. That's right. Some mother looked at their beautiful new boy the day he was born and said, "I will name him Orange... Orange Velvet."
