KFC will pay you thousands if you’re not too chicken to name your baby Harland

KFC is not pulling your leg.

It’s offering $11,000 in college tuition to the first baby born on Sept. 9 to be named Harland, KFC announced on Wednesday.

Why Harland? Because that’s the first name of the company’s founder, Colonel Harland Sanders. And he was born on Sept. 9, 1890.

Why $11,000? It’s a nod to the company’s famous recipe of 11 herbs and spices.

Harland might not be an easy name for a child to bear. It’s not exactly at the top of any “most popular baby names” list.

In fact, in announcing the contest, KFC said Harland ranked at so-low-we-can-hardly-see-it No. 3,257 on the list of most common baby names for 2017, citing the U.S. Social Security Administration.

The last time Harland was popular enough to pop into the top 1,000 names for American boys was 70 years ago, Joe Pinsker at The Atlantic writes.

“Even though vintage names are making a comeback, our iconic founder’s name was dwindling in popularity, and we couldn’t just stand idly by and let that happen,” Andrea Zahumensky, chief marketing officer for KFC U.S., said in a statement, according to Restaurant Business magazine.

Alicia Kelso, who writes about restaurants for Forbes, is shaking her head.

“We’re about to see just how committed the KFC faithful is,” she writes. “In a vortex of over-the-top, gimmicky marketing schemes, this could very well be KFC’s most outrageous ploy yet.

“That’s saying quite a bit considering KFC actually developed sunscreen to purposefully smell like fried chicken and live-streamed cats climbing on a Colonel Sanders-inspired kitty condo for four hours.”

Pinsker is no fan, either, of the possibility of “a child whose naming rights were effectively purchased by a company that sells fast food.

“It is sad to think of the conversation young Harland’s parents might someday have with him, explaining that he is named for the respected patriarch not of his family but of the company that makes the Double Down.”

Today, according to MyNameStats.com, only 2.05 people have the name Harland out of every 100,000 Americans.

But were any of those parents offered $11,000 to dub their babies thus?

According to the contest rules, families have from Sept. 9 to Oct. 9 to enter their “little bundle of joy.”

The Takeout food blog points out the obvious risk.

“So yeah, birth your baby on September 9 and name them Harland, then enter them into the contest here, and wait to hear if you’ve won after the contest closes October 9,” the blog writes.

“This means that you could, in fact, name your baby Harland and not win the money, which would be the ultimate kick in your Famous Bowls.”

This story was originally published August 30, 2018 at 9:30 AM.