Name changes define Clinton's various career stages
WASHINGTON -- What's in a name? Plenty, if you're running for president.
Just ask George W. Bush, who had to distinguish himself from his father of nearly the same name, and Senator Barack Hussein Obama, whose staff worries about confusion with similar-sounding US enemies.
But when it comes to Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, the name game can be an asset and a liability at the same time.
Clinton, an early leader in the race for the 2008 Democratic nomination, apparently has dropped -- or at least deemphasized -- "Rodham," her maiden name. Though her family name remains on her official Senate website, it's not on her campaign website and shows up only occasionally in her news releases.
And the T-shirts and buttons promoting Clinton's presidential run boldly declare "Hillary," placing her with Brad and Angelina in the pantheon of first-name-only celebrities.
Clinton's aides deny that anything has changed and suggested that asking about it was a waste of time.
Yet name changes have defined the stages of Clinton's career. She was Hillary Rodham during her years as a rising Arkansas lawyer seeking an independent identity from her husband, the governor. She added Clinton to her name after his defeat for reelection in 1980; her decision to keep her maiden name had troubled some Arkansas voters.
The shift to Hillary Rodham Clinton signaled a new investment in her husband's career as governor and president, during which she was a key adviser, leading up to her own election to the Senate in 2000.
But now, as a presidential candidate, she's Hillary Clinton -- or just Hillary -- and some analysts say it makes sense for her to streamline her name. Dropping "Rodham," they contend, would erase feminist overtones and soften her image, taking the edge off one of the more sharply polarizing figures of the last two decades.
"We bring a lot of expectations with us [about Clinton] before she opens her mouth," said Susan Reverby, professor of women's studies at Wellesley College, Clinton's alma mater. In a presidential campaign, she'll have to get voters to look at her anew, to put away some of those preconceptions.
If Clinton is consciously playing down her maiden name, Reverby said, it's probably to blunt the view of her as an advocate of women's rights.
At the polls, feminist views -- telegraphed by a married woman's decision to use her maiden name -- rank with a candidate's religion as an emotional, hot-button issue, she said.
But Larry Sabato, a University of Virginia political scientist, said he sees a different motive at work. He thinks Clinton is using her first name more often to convey warmth, something lacking from her earlier persona.
He pointed to her studiously informal "I'm running for president" webcast, in which Clinton -- seated on a couch, amid floral pillows -- cheerily asked voters to join her "conversation."
Using a first name and a living-room setting helps to soften Clinton's image "a bit here and there," he added, "[and] sometimes in an election, that's enough."
And Kathleen Hall Jamieson, University of Pennsylvania communications professor and director of the Annenberg Center for Public Policy, offered another theory -- a one-word name is simply good political branding.
"You want to take up the smallest amount of space possible," she said. "You didn't say, 'I like Dwight David Eisenhower.' You said, 'I like Ike.' "
Despite the Eisenhower example, Reverby noted that women, more often than men, tend to become known by their first names. For example, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is often referred to as Condi, but Vice President Dick Cheney is usually called Cheney.
The question of Clinton's name "speaks to the complex position women are in" when it comes to politics, Reverby said. "They need to sound both familiar and strong . . . she's got to prove both."
Then again, Reverby said, sometimes a name is simply a name, especially on a presidential campaign bumper sticker.
"Nobody uses three names. It's just too complicated," Reverby said. "I'm more worried about what she's doing than what she calls herself. It's more about the substance."
Joseph Williams can be reached at jowilliams@globe.com. 