[wideawake]

In a Semitic language like Arabic, the vowel sounds assigned to a word are very important.

There is no way that "Barack" can be construed to mean "Buraq" - it's like saying that the word "cot" and the word "cat" have the same meaning in English.

"Barack" is a variant of "baraq" meaning "blessed."

Obama's first name is closer in sound to the Hebrew word for lightning than it is to the Arabic word for lightning.

[SolidWood]

That's not correct. Because Arabic has no vowels per-se a different vowel could very well mean the same thing. Buraq and baraq both mean the same thing: "lightning". And this is the name of the creature as well.

The lack of proper vowels is the reason why countless spellings exist for semitic words in different regional dialects. Mohammed, muhammad, mahomet, mehmet etc.

[tezcore]

You had the spirit but you were a little off in your information.
The Semitic root for bless is b-r-k and the Semitic root for lightning us b-r-q and they are indeed similar sounding, but have no relation at all.
this goes for either Arabic OR Hebrew.

Barak Obamas first name is based on brk for blessing
And the mythical creature called ‘buraq’ is based on brq for lightning.
Really it seems from the story that the prophet was saying ‘I rode the lightning’ and that metaphor became a permanent nickname for the creature.
Kinda like Travolta naming his car grease lightning