Little Peytons gather before namesake?s biggest game

Who else you gonna cheer on when the guy you were named for is playing in the Super Bowl Sunday?

Take 11-year-old Peyton Robinette. He?s one of many boys ? and girls ? whose parents have been inspired to name them in honor the Indianapolis Colt quarterback and former Tennessee star.

The Knoxville News Sentinel invited the little Peytons to gather together last weekend, and 49 ranging in age from 12 to infants showed up.

More than 160 people from the U.S. and Canada wrote or called the paper to say they had named a baby after Manning. Interviews from some of the Peyton families were posted on the newspaper?s Web site.

?I would love to be as great an athlete as Peyton Manning. I?d have to say I?m not, but he is a good role model,? said Robinette, who was wearing a Colts No. 18 jersey.

Peyton became a popular name among Tennessee fans while Manning was leading the Volunteers from 1994-97. The Knoxville Zoo even named a baby giraffe Peyton when it was born in 1996.

?I was born during a UT football game while Peyton Manning was the quarterback. They were shooting off fireworks as I was born because we just scored,? said Peyton Branam, 10.

Some families used Peyton as a middle name or changed the spelling ? Paiton, Payton and even Peighton.

?Peyton just symbolized everything we thought that a guy should be ? lots of integrity and class, harder worker, fiercely competitive. And that?s what we wanted our son to be,? said Lisa Taylor, whose son is 7-year-old Andy Peyton Taylor.

Kim Dukes named her son Peyton Taylor Dukes 11 years ago.

?We waited a long time to have Peyton because I?m a cancer survivor. It took us 14 years to have Peyton, and we wanted him to have a very special name,? she said.

Peyton Leho got her name because Manning led the Volunteers to a win over Alabama that broke a nine-game winless streak.

?I found out I was pregnant the week of the 1995 UT-Alabama game. So we went down to the game and her dad said if we win this game we?re going to name the baby Peyton whether it was a boy or a girl,? mother Crystal Leho said.

Another win today in the Super Bowl could inspire even more parents-to-be.