Barack Obama's middle name Hussein has been used in some corners as a rallying cry to cast false aspersions against him, but in a growing movement, some of his supporters are adopting his middle name as a show of solidarity with the candidate.

The New York Times reports that those who are adding Hussein to their name tags -- at least online -- come from a wide variety of backgrounds, including Jews and Catholics, Hispanics and Asians; and from all over the country, from Oklahoma to Washington, D.C.

"My name is such a vanilla, white-girl American name," Ashley Holmes of Indianapolis told the paper. She said she changed her name online "to show how little meaning 'Hussein' really has."

People are changing e-mail accounts and adding Hussein as their middle names on social-networking sites like Facebook, the Times reports, to deaden the effect the name "Hussein" has on some people who see it as a negative trait.

Emily Nordling of Fort Thomas, Ky., said she changed her Facebook account name to "Emily Hussein Nordling". The 19-year-old said her uncle supported her move, but said her father was not happy with her decision.

"He actually thought I was going to convert to Islam," Nordling told the paper.

Although Obama is Christian, his father is Kenyan and he lived in the predominantly Islamic nation of Indonesia as a child, leading some to falsely call him Muslim, or falsely link him to terrorism.

Click here to read the full report in The New York Times.