What's in a name?

Both Senator McCain and the RNC has said that the correct term is Senator Obama.

So why does calling him Barak not make people like he's Jewish (Barak is Hebrew for thunder)...?

Barack and Hussein are Semitic words. Americans have been named with Semitic names since the founding of the Republic. Fourteen of our 43 presidents have had Semitic names (see below). And, American English contains many Arabic-derived words that we use every day and without which we would be much impoverished. America is a world civilization with a world heritage, something Cunninghamism will never understand.

Barack is a Semitic word meaning "to bless" as a verb or "blessing" as a noun. In its Hebrew form, barak, it is found all through the Bible. It first occurs in Genesis 1:22: "And God blessed (ḇāreḵə ) them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth."

Here is a list of how many times barak appears in each book of the Bible.

Now let us take the name "Hussein." It is from the Semitic word, hasan, meaning "good" or "handsome." Husayn is the diminutive, affectionate form.

Barack Obama's middle name is in honor of his grandfather, Hussein, a secular resident of Nairobi. Americans may think of Saddam Hussein when they hear the name, but that is like thinking of Stalin when you hear the name Joseph. There have been lots of Husseins in history, from the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, a hero who touched the historian Gibbon, to King Hussein of Jordan, one of America's most steadfast allies in the 20th century. The author of the beloved American novel, The Kite Runner, is Khaled Hosseini.

But in Obama's case, it is just a reference to his grandfather.

engineer wrote:

Both Senator McCain and the RNC has said that the correct term is Senator Obama.

Then why did his ma and pa name him Barak Hussein Obama?

Democrats want to get irate because Bill Cunningham used Obama's middle name, Hussein. This supposedly makes people think Obama is Muslim. So why does calling him Barak not make people like he's Jewish (Barak is Hebrew for thunder) and why does calling him O'Bama not make people think he's Irish?

flaja wrote:

So why does calling him Barak not make people like he's Jewish (Barak is Hebrew for thunder)...?

Barak, Hebrew: , translate to "lightning" in English.

Obama's first name is Barack.

More at <"Barack" mailbag>