Tantamount to child abuse.

I spotted this in my feed reader a few minutes ago, via the Kingsport (TN) Times-News:

People can be passionate about their politics. Consider, for example, the name given to a baby girl born last weekend to a Carter County couple: Sarah McCain Palin Ciptak.

While that’s the name father Mark Ciptak of Elizabethton put on documents for his baby girl’s birth certificate, it isn’t the name he and his wife originally agreed on. And it isn’t the name his wife, Layla, thought the baby was given.

“We actually came up with the name Ava Grace, and I secretively went and got another set of forms to send to (Social Security officials and the Tennessee Department of Health), and as of this time, she (Layla) still doesn’t realize what I’ve done. I haven’t broken the news to her yet,” Ciptak said.

“As of right now, I’m just trying to get up enough nerve to tell her what I’ve done and hope for the best. I hope I’m still living to tell the tale tomorrow. She thought it was a done deal with Ava Grace.

“Only some friends and family members who I have called for prayer support know at this point.”

Later in the day, Mark did break the news to Layla.

“I don’t think she believes me yet. It’s going to take some more convincing,” he said.

Mountain States Health Alliance spokesman James Watson said Monday he double-checked the records that were signed by the parents for the birth certificate name.

“I just got through looking at the (papers), and you can tell where the father signed the name of the baby. It’s in his handwriting. But both of the parents’ signatures are on the document, and that is what is on its way to Nashville,” Watson said.

Mark Ciptak, a blood bank employee for a local chapter of the American Red Cross, said he named his third child after John McCain and Sarah Palin to “encourage somebody” and “to get the word out” about the campaign.

Rumor has it that the Ciptaks’ next child will be named after either Paul Schenck, Joe Vogler, Westbrook Pegler, Anthony Bouscaren, or Marylin Shannon…