Global trend is born: babies named Barack and Obama

By his own description, Barack Obama was “a skinny kid with a funny name,” but that isn’t stopping proud parents from Romania to Indonesia from naming their newborns after the U.S. president-elect.

Romania’s downtrodden Gypsies -- once enslaved, like African Americans, yet still struggling to overcome deep-seated prejudice -- seem particularly inspired.

“When I saw Obama on TV, my heart swelled with joy. I thought he was one of us Gypsies because of his skin color,” said Maria Savu, whose infant grandson -- Obama Sorin Ilie Scoica -- was born in the central Romania village of Rusciori.

Little Obama is the third child of a poor family that gets by, barely, on 200 lei ($66) a month in welfare benefits.

He came into the world on Nov. 4, the day Americans elected a multiracial president, and Savu, 43, told the Evenimentul Zilei newspaper she hopes his name will bring him luck.

Indonesia, an overwhelmingly Muslim nation made up of more than 18,000 islands, is unabashedly Obama-crazy -- in part because Obama spent four years there as a child.

“He’s great, isn’t it?” said Sularsih, 34, of Jakarta -- who, like many Indonesians, uses just one name -- rubbing the cheek of her sleeping 1-month-old, Husein Obama. “I think it’s a beautiful name for him. And who knows? Maybe one day he’ll be president of Indonesia.”

Underscoring Obama’s popularity across the sprawling archipelago, many political parties have made banners that feature photos of the U.S. leader, and some have even co-opted his “Yes we can” and “Change” themes.

Americans also have been naming children for Obama. Patrick and Sasha Hall Fisher of Hollywood, Fla., are thought to be the first: Sanjae Obama Fisher was born a few hours before news outlets declared Obama to be the new president-elect.

In the Dutch city of Leiden, officials proudly announced recently that Obama’s roots can be traced to the Pilgrims who fled England in 1609 and eventually settled in America. The Pilgrims spent 11 years in Leiden on their way to the New World.

Obama is a descendant of Thomas Blossom, said local alderman Jan-Jaap Haan, citing research by the New England Historic Genealogical Society in Boston.

“Leiden is proud that our historic city is linked via this family tree to the already special background of the new president of America,” Haan said.

Obama’s victory has had special resonance in parts of the world where the poor and underprivileged see him as an example of change they seek in their own societies.

In Brazil, at least eight black candidates took advantage of a quirk in electoral laws and opted to have their names appear as “Barack Obama” in October elections.

Banel Nicolita, a Gypsy who is on Romania’s national soccer team, comes from a family of eight and once lived in a house made of mud. He’s been dubbed “the Obama of Romanian football” because of his against-the-odds accomplishments.

Romania officially is home to 500,000 Gypsies, or Roma, although many people of Roma extraction don’t declare their ethnicity because of widespread prejudice.

The European Union’s Fundamental Rights Agency says Gypsies suffer routine discrimination in education, employment, health services and housing -- a few of the reasons so many identify with the struggles of American blacks.

“Obama’s victory is a motivation for us,” said Gruia Bumbu, chairman of the National Agency for the Roma.

Gypsies were slaves in Romania until roughly the same time in the 19th century when African American slaves were freed. But the Roma never launched a broad civil rights movement, and today, Bumbu said, “we are 20 to 30 years behind.”

“When you see that an African American becomes president, it shows you that the dreams can turn into reality,” he said. “It’s like seeing the light at the end of the tunnel -- the fight for equal opportunities can have a happy ending.”

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AP writers Irwan Firdaus in Jakarta, Indonesia, and Mike Corder in The Hague, Netherlands, contributed to this story.