A couple in Kenya named their newborn child “Donald Trump” nearly three months before the Republican presidential candidate won the general election. Now, Felix Otiendo and Lorna Akoth are celebrating that their child is named after a winner.
Kenya’s The Nation spoke to the couple, who argued that they named their child Donald Trump Otiendo not in the hope that Trump would become president, but that their son would grow up to emulate Trump’s values. “I love people who speak the truth without any fears,” Otiendo said. “Most politicians are not sincere like him.
“I just delivered a baby boy named him Donald Trump Otieno just following my Luo customs naming after nature. Donald Trump Otieno may God give you wisdom as Solomon.” Lorna Akoth said on Facebook on August 9, the day the child was born.
Otiendo and Akoth are ethnic Luos, who Ghafla notes “have a tradition of naming their offspring after popular trends and/or phenomena.” The couple have two other children, Robert Kelly Otiendo and Prince Charles Otiendo.
Major events in both Kenyan and the United States have often triggered a wave of baby names ripped from the headlines in the African nation. In 2012, for example, Millicent Owuor bore twins on Election Day, and chose to name the children “Romney” and “Obama.” The names, she said, would help “remember the historic U.S. elections for a long time, both the winner and the loser.”
Variations on President Barack Obama’s name are especially popular, given his Kenyan heritage. During the President’s trip to Nairobi last year, mothers chose to grace their children with names like “Barack,” “Obama,” and “AirForceOne.”
“I have decided to call my baby AirForceOne Barack Obama so that we can all remember Obama’s visit to Kenya because it is a huge blessing,” Lucy A Akiniyo Okoth, a new mother, said at the time.
Variations on the name Francis – Francisca, Francis, Fransisco, etc – also rose in popularity towards the end of 2015, when Pope Francis visited Kenya. Some parents also chose to simply name their child “Pope.”
