Best Nicknames

Parents sometimes pick names they feel will look great on a billboard or that they consider distinguished. It looks like the parents of Alaska’s governors went with tried and true names. Only two of Alaska’s governor have had the same first name up until 2012.

Click on the names of the people who have governed Alaska (some of them twice) since it became a state in 1959 to learn the meaning and see what other people with the same name grew up to be.

• William Allen Egan born 1914, served 1959-66, 1970-74
• Walter Joseph “Wally” Hickel born 1919, served 1966-69, 1990-94
• Keith Harvey Miller born 1925, served 1969-70
• Jay Sterner Hammond born 1922, served 1974-82
• William Jennings “Bill” Sheffield, Jr. born 1928, served 1982-86
• Steve Camberling Cowper born 1938, served 1986-90
• Anthony Carroll “Tony” Knowles  born 1943, served 1994-2002
• Frank Hughes Murkowski born 1933,  served 2002-06
• Sarah Louise Heath Palin born 1964, served 2006-09
• Nickname: Sarah Barracuda
• Sean Parnell born 1962, served 2009-

Notes: Although Sarah Palin was not the first female governor in the United States, she was the first female to ever be chosen as a running mate when John McCain ran for President against Barack Obama in 2008.