Obama by any other name...

2008-11-9  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

BARACK Obama may have a "funny name," as he once said ?? but it might just catch on among the nation's newly-born.

A Florida couple became among the country's first to bestow it on their child, even before most news outlets had declared the Illinois senator as the President-elect.

Sanjae Obama Fisher was born at 8pm at Hollywood's Memorial Regional Hospital to Patrick and Sasha Hall Fisher.

A hospital spokeswoman said it was the father's idea. But mom still got to watch the election after 14 hours at the hospital. Sanjae has two siblings, eight-year-old sister Shaniah and four-year-old brother Shane.

In Arkansas, Benjamin Barack Kimbrough was born at 2:35pm on Election Day to Walter and Adria Kimbrough. Father Walter is president of Philander Smith College, a historically black school in Little Rock.

In Maryland, a mother who went into labor on Tuesday after voting for Obama named her newly-born daughter for the Obamas' two girls, seven-year-old Sasha and Malia, 10.

Lakisha Brown of Joppa gave birth to Sasha Malia Ann Taylor at 12:36am on Wednesday at Greater Baltimore Medical Center.

Brown watched Obama's victory speech while she was in labor and was so struck by the love Obama showed to his daughters that she decided to name her baby after them, a spokesman said.