When Barry Became Barack Obama
BARACK Obama used to answer to the name Barry. If the UK, he’d have been Bazza, or Baz.
But why did he start to call himself Barack?
When Sen. Barack Obama moved from using the name Barry to Barack, his formal name, it was part of his almost lifelong quest for identity and belonging—to figure out who he is, and how he fits into the larger American tapestry.
Part black, part white, raised in Hawaii and Indonesia, with family of different religious and spiritual backgrounds—seen by others in ways he didn’t see himself—the young Barry was looking for solid ground. At Occidental College, he was feeling like he was at a ‘dead end’… ‘that somehow I needed to connect with something bigger than myself.’”
For similar reasons, Tony Blair will know be known as Anthony, Bill Clinton as William, Teddy Roosevelt as Theodore, Joe Salin as Joseph, Nelson Madela as Rolihlahla and Nick Clegg as…
