Today, people of immigrant descent still negotiate with the tension to fit in with an ethnic or uncommon name. WNYC spoke with New Yorkers who maneuver through life with names that affect their sense of place and community.
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The study stated that, “When comparing the labor market trajectories of two migrants both named Guido at birth, one who Americanizes his name to John and one who keeps his name, John’s occupational-based earning growth is 22% higher than Guido’s occupational-based earning growth.” Tsung is an executive assistant at the Asian American Federation, and recently added 宗义婵 to her business cards. And although she assists Asian communities that include many Chinese speakers, she worries about using the Chinese spelling of her name outside the nonprofit's walls. She said it’s because Asian-sounding names are less likely to be selected from hiring pools compared to Anglicized ones.
Tsung said she thinks her name change might signal that she isn't proud of her heritage, though she understands it could have positive impacts on her career and job opportunities. At the very least, she said, she is satisfied with being known as 宗义婵 in China., one of the city's most ethnically diverse academic communities. Her first name is mispronounced all the time because the “i” is silent.
Constantly correcting people on the pronunciation of your name is psychologically taxing, said Susan Behrens, a professor of Communication Sciences and Disorders who teaches linguistics at Marymount Manhattan College. And living with such a burden can place a person at odds with how they perceive themselves.
“When I was in college, I did an exchange term in Morocco, which is like sort of the first Muslim country I ever spent time in, and it was so weird. Nobody would call me my name. And then everyone would keep sort of insisting to me that my name was not my name,” he said, “They would call me Abdullatif.”
Through his struggles with his name, Nasser is convinced that unusual names build strong characters. So he’s passed the baton. He and his wife, who is Jewish, named their first son Fivel, meaning “bright one” in Hebrew/Yiddish, and their second son Haqq, which is yet another synonym for God in Islam, meaning “truth.”
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