Politics
- First families get their Secret Service code names at the very beginning of a presidential campaign.
- Presidents get to choose from a list if they'd like, but first families don't have much choice.
- Though the names are for security purposes, some stand out as particularly appropriate for the given president, first lady, or first child.
The White House Communications Agency assigns each member of the first family a code name for Secret Service agents to use during their time in the White House.
These names come from a list of agency-approved choices that either the president chooses from or agents pick. Other members of the family are then assigned names that share the same first letter. Sometimes, it's the same letter as the family's last name, but not always.
Though they're meant to be secret, the code names quickly become public either through government filings, sources who leak them to news outlets, or when agents are overheard at public events. Since new technology has allowed security agents to monitor officials in a variety of ways, the names aren't so top-secret anymore.
Here are some of the funniest, most ironic, and random code names used for past presidents, first ladies, and first children: