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What does the name «Barack Hussein Obama» mean?

Barack Hussein Obama II, better known as Barack Obama is the 44th president of the United States. Today we will talk about him because the meaning of his name has caused much commotion during his years in the White House.

 

We have researched a little bit about what this name really means and this is what we found.

 

Barack Obama is named after his father, who was a Kenyan economist (called under the same name). He’s first real given name is “Barak”, also spelled Baraq (Not to be confused with Barack which is is a building or group of buildings that lodge soldiers), from the root B-R-Q, is a Hebrew name meaning “lightning” or “to shine”.

 

The Hebrew name ברק Bārāq is biblical, given after Barak, a military commander in the Book of Judges.

 

“Obama” is an ancient Kenyan surname. The name is found frequently among the Luo, the third largest ethnic group in Kenya. It is believed that the name derived from the root word Obam, which means “to lean or bend.”

 

His middle name “Hussein” coming from the triconsonantal root Ḥ-S-N, is an Arabic name which is the diminutive of Hassan, meaning «good», «handsome» or «beautiful».

 

Suggest which names you would like us to write about! 

 

1 Comment

  • KRISH

    Barack’ is derived from ‘Baraka’, meaning ‘blessing’ in Arabic and Swahili, which is widely spoken in Eastern and Central Africa.
    As he is a muslim, the name is not from the Semitic word. It is from the Arabic word.

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