Hi, my name is ESPN
This might be old news (really old news, in fact news from 2004) but I came across it only today and just had to share it: in 2004 the (at least) third child born in the USA was named after Disney’s sports network: ESPN – to be pronounced as Espen in the boy’s name. Prior to Rebecca and Michael McCall naming their son ESPN Malachi McCall, a couple had named their son “Espn Curiel” in 2000 in Chorpus Christi and enother boy in Michigan had been named “Espen Blondeel” in the same year. According to a report on the website of ESPN the McCalls actually got they idea to name their son ESPN by hearing about another couple naming their boy after the Disney sports network.
Credit, were credit is due: I read about “ESPN” as a first name on brandchannel’s great “brandfeatures – profile” of ESPN by Barry Silverstein. It makes for interesting reading even if you are not an ESPN- or sports-fan as it recounts the success story of ESPN in establishing not only a tv-station with great ratings but a whole brand world. The only bigger story missing in the article is the foreway of ESPN into Europe, where it in the last years introduced ESPN classic and bought NASN (North American Sports Network), THE station covering US-sports for viewers in Europe (and interestingly not yet branded as an ESPN station).
