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The Secret Service traditionally has given pithy, private names to those whose lives they protect. The monikers are a throwback to a time when electronic communications were not encrypted, and they no longer serve a security function. Still, they give an occasional peek at the players' personalities, in addition to serving as great trivia questions.

Read on and you’ll see codenames from past Presidents – some of them are pretty funny. The Secret Service is not selecting these randomly…


President-elect Barack Obama: Renegade

Michelle Obama: Renaissance

Malia Obama: Radiance

Sasha Obama: Rosebud

Vice President-elect Joe Biden: Celtic

Jill Biden: Capri

President George W. Bush: Tumbler

First Lady Laura Bush: Tempo

Bill Clinton: Eagle

Hillary Clinton: Evergreen

Chelsea Clinton: Energy

George Bush: Timberwolf

Barbara Bush: Tranquility

Jimmy Carter: Deacon

Rosalynn Carter: Dancer

Amy Carter: Dynamo

Ronald Reagan: Rawhide

Nancy Reagan: Rainbow

Gerald Ford: Passkey


These are just a few...but notice none to the other presidents or family members have a name with such a meaning behind them.

Renegade means:
1 : a deserter from one faith, cause, or allegiance to another
2 : an individual who rejects lawful or conventional behavior
3 : of or like a renegade; traitorous
disloyal, treacherous, dissident, false, rebellious, recreant

Synonyms:1. traitor, deserter, betrayer, dissenter

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User Comments

  1. Agit8r
    Dubya was nicknamed "Tumbler"... like the drinking glass?


    Seems like Gerald Ford should have been "Tumbler" as in down the airplain steps
  2. polybore
    Do you really think those are the real codewords? What sort of "secret service" comes up with a code word then tells the world what it is. lol
    1. Agit8r
      no shkidding
  3. macwilliams
    "Read on and you’ll see codenames from past Presidents – some of them are pretty funny. The Secret Service is not selecting these randomly…"

    I hope you're not trying to tell us the Secret Service is sending some subliminal encrypted message to us. Think about it for a minute. If they were really in the habit of doing that, then Dubya's code name would have been: Douchebag, and Cheney's would have been Pinnochio.

    Seriously, though, polybore is right. The Secret Service is not in the habit of making such information public about a sitting President or his family. All those other names were disclosed either after those folks left office or the designations had been changed. The designations were also changed once they did leave office, but were still under Secret Service Protection. The only reason the Secret Service might release a list of names like this is to (gasp) spread a little disinformation to see how far it goes, who it goes to, and what means was used to spread it.
  4. Anok
    A) This is old news - the code name for Obama and family was chosen in 2008. (AND you have Dubya's codename wrong. it was trailblazer.)

    B) Here is an article with some more info on it:

    www.suntimes.com/news/politics/obama/1278009,secret-service-barack-obama111...
    President-elect Barack Obama — aka Renegade — had a say in choosing the code name that his protectors use when they’re whispering into those microphones in their sleeves. He was given his choice of several names starting with R.

    And in keeping with the tradition of having all family members’ code names start with the same letter, future first lady Michelle Obama is Renaissance, and daughters Sasha and Malia are known as Rosebud and Radiance, respectively.

    As for President George W. Bush and wife, Laura, whatever else their new lives hold for them, they can take their alternate identities as Trailblazer and Tempo with them. They’re still entitled to Secret Service protection.

    Lists of possible code names for those who receive Secret Service protection are drawn up by the White House Communications Agency, a branch of the military that serves the White House and Secret Service.

    It looks for words that are easily pronounced and easily understood in radio transmissions. The subjects do have some say in the names they will be known by, and some have been given more leeway than others.

    Which is not always a good thing.

    Al Gore’s oldest daughter, Karenna, was 19 when her father became vice president in 1993. Old enough to know better.

    In 1997, she wrote, ‘‘Ever since four years ago, when I was put on the spot and told ’two syllables’ and ’It has to start with an s,’ I have been cringing in the back seat when identified as ’Smurfette.’’’


    C) The synonym for "renegade" is "rebel". Also, radical, revolutionary, unconventional, untraditional, nonconformist, and in that vein, leftist, liberal, left-wing, freethinker, reformer, independant, and individualist. (these are all in the thesaurus).

    Funny how you only chose to pick out the synonyms that conveyed "traitor". I would say that Obama is a bit of a rebel. Much ot the dismay of the conservative party.
    1. anticsrocks
      Maybe a good code name for Obama might be Dumbo or Spock or Alfred E. Neuman...

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