Why Barack Obama's Mom Went By So Many Different Names

Over the course of her nearly 53-year life, Barack Obama's mom, Ann Dunham, was known to the public by four different names. Though the name she went by may have varied over time, she was consistently known for being someone whom the former president described as his greatest influence — a sentiment he shared in an August 2022 Instagram post dedicated to her.

Obama's mom was born as Stanley Ann Dunham on November 29, 1942, in Wichita, Kansas. Per her biography, "A Singular Woman," her masculine name is said to have been chosen by her father, who had originally wished for a son. However, Dunham's biography also says her mother once hinted that she was named after Bette Davis' character in the movie "In This Our Life." Regardless, Dunham went by her given name throughout her childhood, though she eventually transitioned to answering to her middle name, Ann, when she started college and continued to do so all the way through her adult life.

In addition to switching between her preferred first name, Barack Obama's mom, Ann Dunham, also sported three different last names throughout her life. Between the early 1960s and early 1980s, she went through two marriages, which both resulted in her adopting new surnames. According to "A Singular Woman" (via NPR), Dunham met her first husband and Obama Jr.'s father, Barack Obama Sr., in 1960 while attending college in Hawaii. At the time of their 1961 marriage, Dunham was three months pregnant, and Obama Sr. was still married to another woman in his native Kenya, though, per The Washington Post, he lied about being divorced. While she still chose to go by her middle name, Ann, she also took her husband's last name, thus making her Ann Obama. The Obamas divorced in 1964.

Her biography says that Dunham went on to marry Lolo Soetoro, an Indonesian surveyor who later became a Mobil consultant, in 1966. Her new marriage naturally resulted in another name change, this time making her Ann Soetoro. After they were married, Dunham and her son followed Soetoro back to his native Indonesia in 1967, where Obama Jr. spent part of his childhood until he was sent back to Hawaii in 1971 to live with his grandparents. 

Dunham and Soetoro divorced in 1980. Afterward, per "A Singular Woman," Dunham referred to herself by several names, using a different spelling of her former husband's last name, Sutoro. They included Ann Sutoro, Ann Dunham Sutoro, and S. Ann Dunham Sutoro. Until her death in November 1995 of uterine cancer, she also reportedly reverted back to her maiden name, addressing herself again as Ann Dunham, as well as S. Ann Dunham and (Stanley) Ann Dunham.