# What's the deal with people who spell Barack as "Barak?" **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 4, 2009, 7:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-people-who-spell-barack-as-barak/512527 "2009-10-04T07:17:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![AppallingGael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9bd4f/32.png) [@AppallingGael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AppallingGael)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2009, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-people-who-spell-barack-as-barak/512527/21 "2009-10-04T23:17:59Z")
> [@Peanuthead](#): > > And the winner is: > > [Barak vs Barack - Google Fight : make a fight with Googlefight](http://www.googlefight.com/index.php?lang=en_GB&word1=Barak&word2=Barack) “Barack Obama” beats “Barak Obama” 72,000,000 to 178,000; about a 400 to 1 ratio. “Barack Hussein Obama”, though, beats “Barak Hussein Obama” 179,000 to 7480, for a relatively paltry 24-1 ratio. D the C may be on to something. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2009, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-people-who-spell-barack-as-barak/512527/22 "2009-10-04T23:19:51Z")
I’m going to also say it makes sense to me that many Americans, being more familiar with the Hebrew name Barak from the Bible and from news reports from Israel, would find it more natural to type the wrong transcription. Now, would those who are less than fond of him, upon it being pointed out, figure they might as well continue to do it wrong (which after all makes him sound even more exotic) rather than be corrected by those elitist intellectuals, just to drive the point? Wouldn’t surprise me. Me, I’m waiting for the day some Hispanic candidate named _Jesús_ López-Johnson is in the race… see what they do about THAT name… ---
**Author:** ![Mentor\_and\_Liar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/2acd7d/32.png) [@Mentor\_and\_Liar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mentor_and_Liar)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2009, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-people-who-spell-barack-as-barak/512527/23 "2009-10-05T00:13:15Z")
[Yeah, cheap shot, I apologize if it’s inappropriate](http://img269.imageshack.us/img269/3787/emericav3.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2009, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-people-who-spell-barack-as-barak/512527/24 "2009-10-05T00:14:37Z")
> [@JRDelirious](#): > > Me, I’m waiting for the day some Hispanic candidate named _Jesús_ López-Johnson is in the race… see what they do about THAT name… Well, maybe that will halt the Obama as Messiah meme. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![tumbleddown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9bcb4/32.png) [@tumbleddown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tumbleddown)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2009, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-people-who-spell-barack-as-barak/512527/25 "2009-10-05T00:35:33Z")
> [@Telperien](#): > > Some people aren’t good spellers of a name that is still pretty unfamiliar to them, and some are doing it purposefully to show a lack of respect. However, telling the difference between the two is not always as easy as one might think. How long does a name have to be everywhere for people to absorb it, for pete’s sake. It’s been a year and a half that this name has been on every single newscast and in every single newspaper everywhere in the country every single day. The “lack of familiarity” argument seems a little hard to swallow. ---
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2009, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-people-who-spell-barack-as-barak/512527/26 "2009-10-05T00:57:09Z")
I didn’t notice I was spelling it wrong until someone wrote a testy editorial. This was, IIRC, during the election campaign. I was familiar with the biblical Barak and the Israeli prime minister Barak, and so I only gave the spelling a cursory glance. Now that I know the spelling, I try to be careful about it. Although I did write a parody scare-email titled “Barak Oybama Is A Secret Jew!” ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2009, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-people-who-spell-barack-as-barak/512527/27 "2009-10-05T01:02:42Z")
I always figured they were fans of The Brak Show and just couldn’t spell Brak. ---
**Author:** ![Soul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Soul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soul)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2009, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-people-who-spell-barack-as-barak/512527/28 "2009-10-05T01:12:02Z")
No, no, you’ve got it all wrong. It’s a veiled reference to his resemblance to [Baraka](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_characters_in_the_Mortal_Kombat_series#Baraka). ---
**Author:** ![boytyperanma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4491bb/32.png) [@boytyperanma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boytyperanma)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2009, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-people-who-spell-barack-as-barak/512527/29 "2009-10-05T01:36:47Z")
Peepal kan’t spell knews et 11 ---
**Author:** ![qazwart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/5fc32e/32.png) [@qazwart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/qazwart)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2009, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-people-who-spell-barack-as-barak/512527/30 "2009-10-05T02:41:20Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Well, maybe that will halt the Obama as Messiah meme. 😉 I had a friend whose name was Jesus de la Cruz back in Texas. He never ran for political office though. He was big time liberal, and I would love to see how Fox News would handle his campaign. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2009, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-people-who-spell-barack-as-barak/512527/31 "2009-10-05T03:39:10Z")
> [@](#): > > How long does a name have to be everywhere for people to absorb it, for pete’s sake. It’s been a year and a half that this name has been on every single newscast and in every single newspaper everywhere in the country every single day. The “lack of familiarity” argument seems a little hard to swallow. Sure, but how many people named “Barack” have you ever heard of? I’ve known personally a great many "George"s, "Bill"s, "Jimmy"s, and "Richard"s, and a few "Ronald"s and "Gerald"s, plus many others I’ve heard of. I’ve been exposed to those names for _decades_, and on a face-to-face basis and in many different contexts. But I’ve only ever even heard of one “Barack” (well, two, counting his father), and that only in a single context, and for about five years. ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2009, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-people-who-spell-barack-as-barak/512527/32 "2009-10-05T04:28:10Z")
> [@Peanuthead](#): > > And the winner is: > > [Barak vs Barack - Google Fight : make a fight with Googlefight](http://www.googlefight.com/index.php?lang=en_GB&word1=Barak&word2=Barack) But … > **[Barak hussein vs Barack hussein - Google Fight : make a fight with Googlefight](https://www.googlefight.com/index.php?lang=en_GB&word1=Barak+hussein&word2=Barack+hussein)** > > Type 2 keywords and click on the 'Fight !' button. The winner is the one which gets best visibility on Google. ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2009, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-people-who-spell-barack-as-barak/512527/33 "2009-10-05T04:50:19Z")
> [@tumbleddown](#): > > How long does a name have to be everywhere for people to absorb it, for pete’s sake. It’s been a year and a half that this name has been on every single newscast and in every single newspaper everywhere in the country every single day. The “lack of familiarity” argument seems a little hard to swallow. You should really google some time and note how many perfectly familiar and common words are misspelled. I’m sure _friend_ is in the papers every day, doesn’t stop it being a misspelled constantly. Your argument lacks merit. Many people are just naturally bad spellers. ---
**Author:** ![tumbleddown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9bcb4/32.png) [@tumbleddown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tumbleddown)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2009, 7:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-people-who-spell-barack-as-barak/512527/34 "2009-10-05T07:34:50Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Sure, but how many people named “Barack” have you ever heard of? I’ve known personally a great many "George"s, "Bill"s, "Jimmy"s, and "Richard"s, and a few "Ronald"s and "Gerald"s, plus many others I’ve heard of. I’ve been exposed to those names for _decades_, and on a face-to-face basis and in many different contexts. But I’ve only ever even heard of one “Barack” (well, two, counting his father), and that only in a single context, and for about five years. The uniqueness of the name is, IMO, one of the reasons why the spelling of it _would_ be absorbed. You hear a word you haven’t heard before, you think, what’s that word? And you look at it, and say oh, it’s that. And you hear it again and say “did I hear that once?” And you look and say oh, right, I have, it’s that word. It’s a rather natural learning process. > [@aldiboronti](#): > > You should really google some time and note how many perfectly familiar and common words are misspelled. I’m sure _friend_ is in the papers every day, doesn’t stop it being a misspelled constantly. Your argument lacks merit. Many people are just naturally bad spellers. Yes, but remember, we’re talking about people who are _writing_ about the man, which would assume having a level of familiarity with him beyond having merely _heard_ his name at some point in time. And often they’re doing so in comments on blog posts and newspaper articles where the name is in the headline or the lede paragraph, right there, where they can see it. It screams either a remarkable carelessness or pointed intention, especially when it’s repeated. ---
**Author:** ![wmfellows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c2a13f/32.png) [@wmfellows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wmfellows)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2009, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-people-who-spell-barack-as-barak/512527/35 "2009-10-05T15:32:42Z")
> [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](#): > > I didn’t notice I was spelling it wrong until someone wrote a testy editorial. This was, IIRC, during the election campaign. I was familiar with the biblical Barak and the Israeli prime minister Barak, and so I only gave the spelling a cursory glance. > > Now that I know the spelling, I try to be careful about it. Although I did write a parody scare-email titled “Barak Oybama Is A Secret Jew!” Seconded. I am rather more familiar with the Barak spelling from Jewish usage, I bet if I did a search in whatever few missives I might have used his first name, I have probably misspelled it as Barak. ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2009, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-people-who-spell-barack-as-barak/512527/36 "2009-10-05T15:43:46Z")
The argument that this is politically motivated is really a busted flush. Even if conservatives did get the notion to use Barak as a coded insult, what would be the point? It would be lost in the ocean of unintentional misspellings of the name. One thing we can at least be sure of. The OP’s statement that he has seen the misspelling “almost exclusively on anti-Obama web sites” simply means that he wasn’t looking very carefully elsewhere. ---
**Author:** ![Keeve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f07891/32.png) [@Keeve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keeve)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2009, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-people-who-spell-barack-as-barak/512527/37 "2009-10-05T17:22:36Z")
> [@mswas](#): > > Doesn’t Barack mean blessed? The Hebrew version being Baruch. The Hebrew root meaning “blessed” ends with the letter “chaf”, which sometimes has a “k” sound, and sometimes a guttaral “ch” sound (like in “yeccch”). This is the source of the names of philosopher Baruch Spinoza and financier Bernard Baruch. The Hebrew root meaning “lightning” ends with the letter “kaf”, which always has the “k” sound. This is the spelling of the Biblical “Barak”. It is also the spelling of the name of Ehud Barak, who was Prime Minister of Israel from 1999 to 2001. In Hebrew, these two roots are totally distinct from each other. I have no idea which is closer to the Arabic word from which Barack is derived. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2009, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-people-who-spell-barack-as-barak/512527/38 "2009-10-05T17:27:43Z")
Actually, I think that the correlation of this misspelling with the use of the “Hussein” middle name is a pretty good indicator that it is, to a significant degree, politically-motivated. Nobody uses his middle name unless they’re either being very meticulous about giving his exact name (which is the last place you’d expect to see accidental misspellings), or they’re trying to emphasize his “foreignness”, “Muslimness”, or “un-Americanness”. ---
**Author:** ![OldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2009, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-people-who-spell-barack-as-barak/512527/39 "2009-10-05T21:06:50Z")
Back in the day (you remember “the day” right), K used to denote Anti-Americanism as in the spelling Amerika. This could be consciously or unconsciously related, I suppose. ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2009, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-people-who-spell-barack-as-barak/512527/40 "2009-10-05T22:12:19Z")
> [@The\_Great\_Philosopher](#): > > I don’t think it’s overanalyzing it - to me Barak sounds more Arabic than Barack. Not much more to it than that. As the OP points out, it’s mainly conservative blogs and websites that call him Barak, usually adding his middle name to make it “Barak Hussein Obama”, emphasizing that they think he’s a foreigner or a Muslim. Not at all. You are just more comfortable thinking that it must be some unreasonable, blind hatred that nobody cares to find out the alternate spelling of the leader of your party. I am familiar with both spellings, and I just can’t always remember which one fits him. Who cares? Maybe he spells it Barakk, it’s not something that concerns me. Why do so many people spell Hitler’s first name Adolph? Are the Jewish interests trying to make Hitler’s first name ‘sound’ foreign? hh [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-people-who-spell-barack-as-barak/512527.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-people-who-spell-barack-as-barak/512527.md?page=3)