Ilhan Omar Changed Her Name, But So Did JD Vance
What’s in a name?
Since we heard that Ilhan Abdullahi Omar isn’t Ilhan’s real name but a legal alias, the media has searched for a similar example on the right. They found one that isn’t, but are using it to confuse people.
The significance of Ilhan Omar’s name being Ilhan Nur Said Elmi, is that it is the name of her ex-husband and potential brother. The equivalent name change is allegedly JD Vance’s, who changed his name due to a revolving door of fathers.
James Donald Bowman’s mother divorced his father, married Bob Hamel, and changed J.D.’s name to James David Hamel. Mr. Hamel adopted him. She wanted to keep the initials but not the name “Donald.” Vance became J.D. Hamel.
His legal father became a “total stranger.”
After he graduated from law school, J.D. married a former classmate, Usha Chilukuri, and they both changed their last name to Vance — “giving me, finally, the same name as the family to which I belonged.” He bore the name of his beloved grandparents, who were always there for him. He dropped the initials and became just JD Vance.
In Ilhan’s case, she might have married her brother. There’s plenty of evidence it’s true, and in a Stephen Hayes interview, she said he wasn’t her brother “as far as I know.”
What???
It is also believed by some that her father changed his name to disguise his role in the Somalia war against an entire population of their own people.
A name can bring you home, as in Vance’s case, or it can bring you or your brother to someone else’s home.
Image: Unsplash, Tim Mossholder