A number of people have told me that my name is not particularly common, and this matches my experience. I have gotten used to all the not-quite-Eriks out there who insist on using a “c” at the end.
If you were looking for an Owomoyela and stumbled onto this site, there’s a good chance you might have been interested in one of these people instead:
An Owomoyela is a writer and web developer. She’s been featured in places like Clarkesworld, Asimov’s, Lightspeed, Expanded Horizons and The Year’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy 2011. She is also, I am told, my sister.
Oyekan Owomoyela was my father, as well as the Ryan professor of African literature at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He published multiple books, articles and essays on the history, language, literature and culture of the Yoruba and other peoples of sub-Saharan Africa.
Patrick Owomoyela is a former professional basketball player who currently plays soccer, which I understand they call fußball, for Germany’s Borussia Dormund. He was a member of the squad in the 2005 Confederations Cup, in which Germany finished third. I have never met him.