This Baby Won $11,000 From KFC Because She Was Named After Colonel Sanders

The task of naming a child comes with great responsibility. For some parents-to-be, deciding on a name only comes after poring through thousands of options, making countless lists, and having a handful of fights with their significant other. Other parents already know what they're going to name their little ones before they've even conceived. Still others opt for family names, or wait until their baby is born. And then there are parents who are swayed by a little bribery. As it turns out, this baby won an $11,000 college fund from KFC because she was named after Colonel Sanders.

The fast food chain announced in August that it would award an $11,000 college fund to the first baby born on Sept. 9 who was named after Colonel Sanders, Time reported. (Sept. 9 happens to be the birthday of Colonel Harland David Sanders — the entrepreneur behind KFC, according to Biography.com.) In case you were wondering, the $11,000 was in honor of the Colonel's secret recipe consisting of "11 herbs and spices," according to the publication. Specifically, this sum of money would be awarded to the first baby born on Sept. 9 with the name Harland. (Whew, they dodged a bullet on the "Colonel" part.)

And it looks like we have a winner, folks!

As People reported, the fast food chain recently announced the winner of their contest via Twitter. "I’m as pleased as pumpkin punch to announce the winner of our Baby Harland Naming Contest and the Harland who will be ushering in an all-new generation of Harlands, little Harland Rose," the tweet read, along with an adorable photo of the infant rocking a hair bow and a floral shirt. Little Harland Rose really was one of the first babies born that day, too, as she arrived just 12 seconds after midnight on Sept. 9, according to Fortune — and originally, Harland wasn't even on her parents' list of potential names. However, when Anna Pilson and Decker Platt of Southern Pines, N.C., learned of the contest, they thought it over. And when Pilson ended up going into labor on Sept. 8, it was decided.

The $11 grand will be put into a college fund for baby Harland "Harley." And as Fortune explained, it will grow to roughly $44,000 by the time she's ready to start college. (Which is a pretty nice chunk of change to go toward high education.) “Ever the entrepreneur, Colonel Sanders bounced back from a series of failed jobs and business ventures to found Kentucky Fried Chicken in his 60s,” a KFC spokesperson told The Atlantic. “We couldn’t think of a better way to honor him than to help support Baby Harland’s future successes with a college donation.”

For the most part, it seems like Twitter is enamored by winner of KFC's naming contest. One person wrote, "Adorable!! Welcome to the World Harland Rose. What a beautiful and unique name."

Another Twitter user wrote, "I love the name Harland! Such a beautiful baby."

Yet another person chimed in with, "She's lucky that's actually a cute name."

Still, another person pointed out, "She's adorable and Harland Rose is a cute name but 11k is chump change. By the time she gets to college, that'll pay for books for one class. She still cute though. KFC's chicken is trash though sorry (not sorry)."

You know what? Harland "Harley" Rose is actually a really pretty name. Now, I don't know if I would name my child Harland for the sake of (possibly) winning a contest Then again, $11,000 — which will grow to nearly four times that amount when it's all said and done — is more than most parents have saved for their child's college fund. So it would definitely be tempting. (Hopefully my children pick sensible majors at a reasonably-price college and score some decent scholarships, because none of them are named after fast food icons.) Congrats to baby Harley and her parents!