Sarah Palin's children's names

Sarah is a traditional name, Governor Palin's husband's name is Todd, which isn't that unusual, so how did they come to choose their children's names? The boys are Track and Trig, and the girls are Bristol, Willow and Piper.

In an interview in the US People magazine (http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20222685_2,00.html) Todd Palin says that the name Track was chosen because their families were all keen athletes. I thought at first that perhaps the baby's name Trig was short for trigger - Sarah Palin is keen on shooting, I believe - but Todd Palin says trig is a Norse word meaning 'strength'.

I suspect the names all have Alaskan links. I read somewhere else that there is a great uncle Trig, who is a fisherman, and baby Trig's middle name, Paxson, is the name of a tiny Alaskan community. Willow and Bristol Bay are places in Alaska, too. In the People interview, Todd Palin says of Piper, that it is a cool name. It's not that rare, and was in the list of top 250 girls' names in the USA in 2006. That might have something to do with the fact that Piper is one of the sisters in the television series Charmed. I note also that Willow is a character in another popular TV show, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I can't believe that Sarah Palin named her daughters after television characters. Surely, with her busy life, she can't have time to watch TV too!

Comments

[Sadie]

I was interested in the syntax that Sarah Palin used in her interview with Charles Gibson, more than how her many children got their names. I thought that there was something odd about the way she answered the questions, but I am no linguist so I couldn't identify what the problem was. There were verbs and prepositions that were out of place in many of her answers. I didn't know if it was as a result of her having memorized talking points imperfectly, or if it was some neurological or learning problem. Can a linguist weigh in on this issue? Thanks.

[Virtual Linguist]

Dear Sadie,
Thank you for your comment and question. I have just watched the interview on YouTube. You are right about some verbs being out of place. For instance, Gibson's first question was 'Can you look the country in the eye and say "I have the experience and I have the ability to be not just vice-president, but perhaps president of the United States of America?"'. Palin answered 'I do, Charlie', even though the correct answer would have been 'I can'. But still, I wouldn't condemn her too much for that, as it was a fairly long, rambling question, and she may have thought she was responding to 'Do you have the experience ...?'

Sarah Palin was obviously nervous and her answers were often stilted, but I think that this was mainly due to having been intensively coached, then trying to recall the 'correct' answers at the right time.

I made more comments for myself when watching the interview and write about them in my September 15 post.

Thanks for reading.

Best wishes

Susan, the Virtual Linguist