NEWSWEEK: Cover: When 'Barry' Became Barack
23 Mar 2008 17:04 Africa/Lagos NEWSWEEK: Cover: When 'Barry' Became Barack Newsweek Reconstructs Time When Obama Moved from Using 'Barry' to Formal Barack and Impact it Made on Him 'It was when I Made a Conscious Decision: I Want to Grow Up,' Obama Says NEW YORK, March 23 /PRNewswire/ -- 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," he tells Newsweek, "that somehow I needed to connect with something bigger than myself." (Newsweek: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080323/...