Actually, she was a girl named Stanley. Stanley Ann Dunham.
Back at Mercer Island High School near Seattle, she use to explain how her father really, really wanted a boy . . . and that was that. So, he had named her Stanley.   By the time she started college she decided it was time to quit. Quit explaining her first name and just plain quit her first name. So, upon entering the University of Hawaii, she was Ann. Just plain Ann. Ann was a bit cute. A starry eyed, 17 year old, with a bit of a chip on her shoulder for her father and a desire to redo the world to fit her ideals.
Also, back at Mercer Island High, Ann had preferred nonconformist teachers and coffee houses to football heroes and sock hops.
That was 1959. The film Black Orpheus, a tragedy of star-crossed black lovers, had won the Best Foreign Film Oscar. It won Ann's heart as well.
Now, it was one year later. The Cold War remained at a peak. Time for a student with a rebellious streak to put her Contrarian theories into action. What was more natural, than jumping into a Russian Language Course? And shortly thereafter, jumping into the arms of a fellow language classmate, who happened to be, or more the better was, an African exchange student from Kenya? Within two months, a pregnancy. Within five months, a secret wedding. And within 11 months, a child. A child, born on August 4th 1961, just 9 days before the Soviets and East Germans started the construction of the Berlin Wall. These were impetuous and challenging times on the world front. And in the Dunham's living room as well.