Does anybody else find it interesting that the first black president and probably the first woman president, have very

[ColinC]

Unique names?

[elleng]

1. 'very' unique???

[ColinC]

2. I guess... "not white" names would be more accurate?

[niyad]

54. No. the "very" was redundant.

[MorbidButterflyTat]

58. "White names"?

Is that like "Black jobs?"

[ColinC]

59. No. It's like not having a European name like mine.

As a non white person of mixed race and a European name, I am delighted to see other mixed race people without European names elected president.

[cloudbase]

10. Uniquer.

Most unique!!!!!! Uniquest?

[elleng]

16. LOLOLOL!!!

[marybourg]

45. There are no degrees of uniqueness.

Something is either unique - one of a kind . or it isn’t.

[EYESORE 9001]

3. Among Africa Americans, 'Harris' is a very common surname

I think surname recognition works favorably for her.

‘Kamala’ is unique, for sure. It still amazes me that we once elected someone named Barack Obama as President - not once but twice. I feel like four years of the orange menace kinda put the zap on a lot of people’s heads. That was a long four years. The enthusiasm that happened in 2008 has reawakened.

[Bucky]

26. I think the OP was referring to her middle name

Kamala "Kick-Ass" Harris

[brush]

30. Now you're talking.

[ColinC]

52. You're right tho

[wordstroken]

55. Yep!

Nailed it.

[wnylib]

43. Kamala and Barack might be "unique" names

in the US, but Kamala is common enough in India, meaning Lotus Flower and related to a Hindu goddess. Barack is derived from Semitic languages like Arabic and Hebrew, a common name meaning "Blessed." Barack is the Arabic form. In Hebrew, it is Baruch or Baruk.

Singling them out as unique sounds a bit like "othering."

Looking over past presidents' names, I suspect that there were not many boys or men with the first name of Ulysses in Grant's lifetime.

Then there is the first name of President Rutherford Hayes. Wonder if kids called him "Ruth" when he was young.

I have not heard of Lyndon as a popular male name in the US.

Even Dwight (Eisenhower) and Millard (Fillmore) were not common names, although not unheard of.

[ColinC]

53. That's interesting to me. This suggests Americans like their presidents with rather unique names.

[wnylib]

60. But there is a greater number who have had

common names, some of them held by more than one president, i.e. George, John, James, William, and Andrew. Common names held by only one president are Thomas, Martin, Benjamin, Theodore, Harry, Richard, Gerald, Donald, and Joseph.

I think it is safe to say that a less common name is not an obstacle, but that common names among presidents are...um...more common.

[ColinC]

63. What provoked me to make the OP is this thought:

That the first black and female presidents -at one point, were largely expected to be named Colin and Hillary. Instead they are Barack and (hopefully) Kamala.

[wnylib]

64. My perceptions of the names Kamala and Barack

are different, and I don't know how many people would share them.

The sound of Kamala is similar to the sound of Pamela, so it does not sound so unusual to me.

The sound of Barack is similar to the Hebrew, Baruch. I am not Jewish, but came across the Baruch name a few times in books and films that had Jewish characters in them. I knew that Arabic and Hebrew are both Semitic languages with cognate words and names, so the name Barack did not sound so unusual to me. A lot of people in Africa are Muslim. Since Barack Obama's Kenyan father was Muslim, it was not strange to me that he would have an Arabic name.

What seems significant to me about their names and ethnic/racial/cultural heritages is that, despite racial prejudices in the US and names that are not common sounding to most Americans, most people (except MAGA types) can relate to the common human traits of character and personality in both of them that make them good leaders.

Both of them rose to political leadership at a time when obstacles to their identities looked formidable. 2008 was only 7 years after 9/11 and the US was at war in two Islamic nations in the name of fighting terrorism, which a lot of Americans equated with being Muslim. Along comes a Black candidate with an Arabic first name whose father was Muslim. And he WINS.

Ever since Obama's two terms, the political right became more extreme and more openly vocal in their racism. Trump became their lashback candidate and president. Racism and misogyny are core "values" among Trump's followers and promoters in a major US political party. Along comes a leader who is Black, South Asian, FEMALE, with an Asian first name. She is popular and taking the lead. May we also say in November, "and she WiNS."

[ColinC]

65. I love this

Thank you!!

[wnylib]

66. Let the November blue wave crash over the MAGAs.

[Maeve]

57. There is also a Gaelic " Barrack"

Which was pointed out in the Corrigan Brothers song:

https://m.

[wnylib]

62. Did not know that. Thanks.

[Raven123]

4. More unique than Millard Fillmore?

[ColinC]

6. Barack Obama is more unique, yes

[Bucky]

27. I dunno, in my teaching career I've met about half a dozen people named Barak or Barack

I've never met a Millard.

[brush]

31. Isn't that one of those ducks with the green heads?

[Bucky]

34. One thing I've learned on DU today is, even a duck with a green head...

could Fillmore seats at an Atlanta venue than Trump

[brush]

37. Good one.

[wordstroken]

56. Hahaha!!

[FirefighterJo]

35. That's a Mallard

[brush]

36. I know, trying for a little bit of humor.

[FirefighterJo]

38. My bad

Not always easy to convey the finer humor through the net I guess

[brush]

39. I shoud've used the sarcasm gif.

[Bucky]

40. Never use the sarcasm gif

please

[JoseBalow]

42. This guy gets it

[ColinC]

51. In my teaching career I have met a mallard and no Baracks

I guess we are at an impasse…

[SunsetDreams2]

5. Ummm

😬

[ColinC]

7. ?

[orthoclad]

8. Unique to who?

A little Eurocentric. I know many people with non-Euro names, these names don't seem so unusual to me.

[ColinC]

12. Unique to our eurocentrism

But you are right: not unique in the grand scheme of things.

[orthoclad]

17. It's nt even unique to my US city

Speak for yourself, it's not MY eurocentrism.

[ColinC]

18. Well has your country elected a lot of people without Anglican names?

Cause unless it has, it is pretty unique to YOUR eurocentrism too.

I would also surmise that if you have to do a hundred thousand dollar ad buy to teach people how to pronounce your name, it is probably fairly unique. 🤔

[Bucky]

28. Some of us don't have Eurocentrism

I believe in Amerocentrism. Red, white, and blue..... Yeehaw!!!

[ColinC]

48. Same

[Sneederbunk]

9. Ulysses?

[Zoomie1986]

19. Grover

Roosevelt.

Yeah--totes 'ordinary' names.

[Wednesdays]

21. I would say even Lincoln was not a household name before he was elected. nt

[Bucky]

32. Actually there were several Lincolns in US history before 1860

Benjamin Lincoln was an unrelated but famous general in the Revolutionary War. Lincoln's grandfather was also a well known officer in the ARW. There was a famous portraitist named James Sullivan Lincoln in the antebellum period. Martha Lincoln became one of the first full time women journalists during the Civil War.

It was Johnson or Smith, but it was a fairly common surname

[muriel_volestrangler]

11. VP Harris is not even the only Kamala high in the US government

>Ambassador-Designate Kamala S. Lakhdhir - U.S. Embassy & Consulates in Indonesia

Kamala Shirin Lakhdhir, a career Foreign Service Officer, has served in the Department of State for almost 33 years. Most recently, she served as the State Department’s Executive Secretary (2021-2023) and before that as U.S. Ambassador to Malaysia (2017-2021). From 2011-2015, Amb. Lakhdhir served as the Executive Assistant to the Under Secretary for Political Affairs, and from 2009 through 2011 she served as the U.S. Consul General in Northern Ireland.

Joining the Foreign Service in 1991, Amb. Lakhdhir first served at the U.S. Embassy in Saudi Arabia and then at the U.S. Embassy in Indonesia. Returning to Washington in 1996, she was assigned to the Secretary of State’s Secretariat, serving two Secretaries of State. From 1998 through 2000, she was the Taiwan Coordination Staff’s deputy coordinator and then was a Pearson Fellow, serving on the staff of the House Subcommittee on Asia and the House Subcommittee on International Monetary Policy and Trade. Amb. Lakhdhir was posted to the U.S. Embassy in Beijing (2001-2005), and then served as Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs (2005-2006).

From 2007-2009, Amb. Lakhdhir was the Director of the Office of Maritime Southeast Asia in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, which is responsible for U.S. relations with the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei Darussalam, and Timor-Leste. Ms. Lakhdhir graduated from Harvard College in 1986, and in 2007 received a Masters degree from the National War College. Born in Brooklyn, New York, she grew up in Brooklyn and Connecticut.

https://id.usembassy.gov/ambassador/

[ColinC]

13. Wonderful post thank you!!

[Shrek]

14. Are there degrees of uniqueness?

Unique is a binary attribute.

[ColinC]

15. Non-anglo is more what I meant

[Bucky]

33. ah, non-Anglo is a better descriptor

Like "Van Buren" or "Eisenhower"

[ColinC]

47. Perhaps "European"?

[Talitha]

20. You'd get tongue-tied trying to pronounce the ethnic names of the kids I went to school with.

My neighborhood was of middle-European and Baltic ancestry.
Just about the whole alphabet was included in our names.

[In It to Win It]

22. I find it interesting that the 2nd woman to be the nominee of a major party and the 1st woman

will have the same opponent.

[Crunchy Frog]

24. They're both children of people from

non Anglo Saxon countries. Obama's name is the same as his Kenyan father's, and Kamala's name is from her mother's native India.

Most of our presidents families have been in this country for at least a few generations.

[multigraincracker]

41. I always thought O'Bama

Was Irish.

[DFW]

25. Not enough to get me overly excited

No more than Dwight or Woodrow.

[betsuni]

29. Been a long long time since WASPs controlled practically everything, so no.

[ColinC]

50. As far as among presidents. Have we had a lot of non European-named presidents?

I would find that rather unique. It was largely expected that our first black president was going to be named Colin and our first female president, Hillary. Instead, our first black president was Barack and first female president is probably Kamala.

[betsuni]

44. This reminds me of Michael Moore's belief that white Obama to Trump voters can't be racist

because they voted for someone with the name of Barack Hussein Obama.

[ColinC]

49. How does this remind you of that?

[tman]

46. Both of their names contain four A's and one 'M'

And the most commonly used names that people refer to them as, (Obama, Kamala), happen to rhyme.

..it's mildly amusing.