Obama must overcome the vowel ending barrier

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So, Barack Obama has a unique name in the ranks of presidents. He has said “I don’t look like other presidents”

But I the fact is, there has not been a president in living memory whose name ends in a vowel.

Perhaps americans like the security of names which end in the finality of a consonant. It’s reassuring.

Excepting the ‘sometimes y’ from vowel status, the last president with a vowel at the end of their last name was Coolidge.

But let’s be honest, that is a SILENT vowel. There is only one president whose name truly in a vowel sound:

Monroe: elected in 1817, he is the lone vowel ending president.

I’m not sure Obama will be able to face the challenge.

One thought on “Obama must overcome the vowel ending barrier”

  1. You cannot simply forget about the sometimes “y” rule. In a name like KENNEDY or McKINLEY the “y” IS a vowel. If spelling conventions were different, it could have been “Kennedie” or “McKinlee” or a number of other possible variations.

    Conversely, names like Coolidge or Pierce (whom you forgot) end in consonants, phonetically speaking.

    “Y” is a consonant at the beginning of a syllable, by the way. Words like “young” and “you” are examples. In a final position, ‘y’ is nearly always a vowel.