Levi Johnston, Bristol Palin Consider Normal Name for Child

The teenage pregnant daughter of Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and her boyfriend Levi Johnston are considering breaking with Palin tradition and giving their pre-born but still-very-much-a-person child a "normal" name.

"Thank God!" his mother, Sherry Johnston, said Thursday. Bristol Palin, 17, and Levi Johnston, 18, haven't set a wedding date yet, but expect to welcome their first child together in December. "I was so afraid I was gonna end up with a grandson named Clawhammer or SnowCat!" said the presumptive grandmother.

Johnston had reason to fear. Names rumored to have been on the young couple's list (written on a paper napkin and retrieved from a dumpster outside the Wasilla Dairy Queen) included "Kegger," "Crush," and "Optimus Prime."

Asked what sort of names she would prefer, the grandmother-to-be fell back on a now-familar Alaskan rhetorical tic; "Oh, all of 'em!" she said, but when pressed, narrowed the list of acceptable names to include "Kyler . . . and Asheleigh. But none of this 'Trig' and 'Track' crap."
In a bizarre offshoot of this story, for a brief moment the rumor spread that the young couple were to be doubly blessed and were expecting twins. Names circulating for a set of twins included a pairing intended to honor both Bristol's mother and her superannuated "running mate:" Twinkly and Wrinkly.

The child-to-be is single, but definitely heterosexual.