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Why Did Chelsea Clinton Name Her Baby Aidan?

by Abby Johnston

So far the news about Hillary Clinton's second grandchild, Aidan Clinton Mezvinsky, has been pretty scant. I guess I can give the Clintons a pass; they have a lot going on what with presidential campaigns and new babies. So we don't necessarily have a firm answer for why Chelsea Clinton named her baby Aidan, but the meaning is pretty fitting for his lineage.

Clinton never really offered a clear-cut reason for why she named daughter Charlotte, who turns two in September, so we may not ever get some amazing backstory on the name. And that's OK! There isn't always a deeper meaning for baby names (surveying my dad, for instance, offered only that he liked the name).

But Aidan, which comes from the Irish name Aodhan, means little fiery one. That's a pretty apt meaning for a little fella whose parents include one former president, one former secretary of state, and two members of Congress on the paternal side. I won't press little Aidan for any details about his future just yet (he should probably learn to speak first), but with that name and his genetics, it sounds like the world could have another little politico on its hands.

MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images

Chelsea Clinton and her husband, Marc Mezvinsky, didn't know the sex of Aidan before he was born on Saturday, so they likely had two names already picked out, prepared for either outcome.

No matter if Aidan's name has special meaning, his grandparents are obviously overjoyed (or, well, at least the Clinton side, but I'm willing to bet the Mezvinsky family is pretty stoked, too). Hillary Clinton, despite what many naysayers will tell you, has successfully leaned in to both her role as a grandmother and presidential candidate. No doubt that Aidan will get the same kind of adoration that Clinton has bestowed on her first grandchild:

I’m experiencing sort of what my mother experienced with Chelsea, because you’re so focused on just enjoying and marveling and loving to the Nth degree but you also have this perspective like, ‘Oh my gosh, I want to make sure that the world is okay and that, you know, things are right, and we have to save the planet.’

And it certainly seems like making the world better for her grandchildren is what Clinton is focused on doing. Or at least showing her two grandchildren that a woman can be president of their country.