What's in a Name

There's some confusion now on how US President Barack Obama's name should be written in Chinese.

Most Chinese press have used 奥巴马 (ao4 ba1 ma3) for months since the Democratic race last year.

But the US Government is trying to standardize his name in Chinese and is issuing press releases using 欧巴马 (ou1 ba1 ma3).

Could it be because 奥 can mean "concealing", or "hard to understand", where as 欧 is short for "Europe", not that Obama has anything to do with Europe.

It may take a while for people to change their habits...