As yesterday's inauguration proved, America has found a place for him, and it's in the Oval Office. But there are still some places where that funny name still doesn't fit - most notably Microsoft Word's spell check.
Type the president's first and last names into Word - at least in the versions of Word used in most newsrooms, plus the one I use at home - and you're greeted with that all too familiar squiggly red underline which flags misspelled words.
If you were to use the president's middle name - Hussein - Word would tell you you're in the clear there. Barack Obama's Kenyan father would have been perfectly comfortable with the idea of passing on his own name to his son - it is a practice common not only in the US, but in his own country too, and especially among the Luo tribe, to which he belonged. In the US, things change slightly once the third Joe Bloggs in a series comes along.
Then even those who began as Juniors may become IIs. The grandfather and father can continue to use Sr and Jr, respectively, or the numerals. According to Sharon Manitta, the bigger numbers tend to be used mostly in swankier sections of society. Observant readers will note that Barack Obama's birth certificate also has a comma between the "Obama" and the "II".
Is this excruciatingly correct, or not? On this point, the authorities disagree. The Chicago Manual of Style is against the comma. At any rate, it seems unlikely to disqualify Barack Obama from holding the presidency. Today we will talk about him because the meaning of his name has caused much commotion during his years in the White House. Barack Obama is named after his father, who was a Kenyan economist called under the same name.
The name is found frequently among the Luo, the third largest ethnic group in Kenya. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.
We have researched a little bit about what this name really means and this is what we found. Suggest which names you would like us to write about!
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