Not able to use if statement with dompdf

This is my code:

<?php
$root = realpath($_SERVER["DOCUMENT_ROOT"]);
include "$root/config.php";
require_once 'dompdf/autoload.inc.php';
use Dompdf\Dompdf;
$dompdf = new Dompdf();

$stmt = $pdo->prepare('SELECT name FROM my_table');
$stmt->execute();

$results = $stmt->fetchAll();
foreach( $results as $row ) {
$dompdf = new DOMPDF();

$html = "

".if(!empty($row['name']))  {
echo "My name is".$row['name']."";
}."

";

$dompdf->load_html($html);
}
$dompdf->setPaper('A4', 'portrait');
$dompdf->render();
$dompdf->stream();
?>

I'm always getting:

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected 'if' (T_IF) in /var/www/user_name/html/create_pdf.php on line 17

Simple HTML code like this $html = "<p>Hello, it's me!</p>"; works.

Also PHP code like this $html = "My name is ".$row['name']."!"; works.

Just the if-statement seems not to work.

What am I doing wrong?