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How many Obamas are there?
According to databases, there might be fewer than 20 Obama families in the United States, compared with more than 11,000 Clintons and 60,000 Bushes...
Many of these people are being treated like VIPs. But they are not mostly from Kenya:
Nicanor, like most of the Obamas in this area, is a native of Equatorial Guinea. The name is common there -- much more so than in Kenya, in fact, where the president-elect's father was from -- and Guineans wonder whether they can make their own claim to a branch of the president-elect's family tree. There are also a few Obamas of Japanese decent.
Here is a listing of all appearances of the word or name Obama, which includes lots from Japan, including a cable TV station. Here is the only known Obama in the UK.
Now that Brian Cowen (read the section of that link on "public image") is Prime Minister of Ireland...
Posted by Tyler Cowen on November 28, 2008 at 07:50 AM in Political Science | Permalink
Comments
Weirdly enough Brian Cowen and Obama's great third great-grandfather both come from the same area (Offaly). So you could be related to Obama also. BIFFO now also means Black Intelligent Fellow From Offaly
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2008/1103/1225523317197.html
Posted by: davidc at Nov 28, 2008 8:15:52 AM
There was a Spanish study, I remember, that found that high status people had rarer surnames. One explanation for that, I suppose, would be that smart families have fewer children. But that is a more recent trend, so I dunno...
Posted by: Jason Malloy at Nov 28, 2008 8:46:10 AM
Jason, RA Fisher's explanation was that people who have fewer children don't have to spend as much money on their children so other things equal the children inherit more money. If relative infertility leads to wealth concentration, a fair number of rich people will be relatively infertile. And if high status tends to go with wealth, then there you are.
You don't need to assume intelligence is involved, but it could be. Fisher suggested that smart ruthless people, the people who make a lot of money, might then tend to marry infertile people and suffer natural selection against them. He suggested that people who are superior in some way ought to try to have plenty of children despite their possible infertility. I believe his suggestion was mostly ignored.
Somebody who said things like that today would be considered a crackpot but Fisher was a great geneticist and statistician.
Posted by: J Thomas at Nov 28, 2008 9:11:50 AM
Awaiting the snarky references to flip-flopping...where's jorod or Indiana Jim when you need them?
Posted by: meter at Nov 28, 2008 9:27:02 AM
Who is in Ireland counting all the O'Bama's?
Posted by: mobile at Nov 28, 2008 10:10:48 AM
Posted by: dss at Nov 29, 2008 2:25:03 AM
Posted by: sxcx at Nov 29, 2008 2:26:38 AM
Posted by: dxc at Nov 29, 2008 2:28:28 AM
Obama almost didn't get offered his famous community organizing job because the boss was worried that he might be Japanese. The New York Times reported:
"Mr. Kellman, who is white, was looking for a black organizer to assist him. Mr. Kellman said that based on the résumé, he had not been sure Mr. Obama was black. The name Obama and the fact that he had grown up in Hawaii, made him think Mr. Obama might be Japanese."
Kellman asked his Japanese wife if "Obama" sounded Japanese to her, and she said sure.
Indeed, one theory for why Obama's "Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance" is so obsessed with "race and inheritance" is that it started out as a law school application essay trying to make sure that Obama qualified for the African-American quota rather than the (non-existent) Asian-American quota.
Posted by: Steve Sailer at Nov 29, 2008 3:07:36 AM
I am in Ireland counting Obamas. Cant find any just yet. But you can have all the Cowens if you want. Its an embarrasment to have this government in power! BTW Ireland just likes to claim whatever tenuous link it can to any sort of ownership of a subject that has any form of meaning to society. I come from a town on the West coast where supposedly Muhammed Ali's great grandfather came from or something to that effect. This desire/need/penchant to claim association probably comes from hundreds of years of not being allowed to own anything. Now Ireland scrambles to own anything it can in history.
Posted by: Ivan at Nov 29, 2008 10:12:29 AM
Please come to cheap aoc gold, we will give you a great surprise.
Posted by: conan gold at Dec 31, 2008 12:23:21 AM
