Fresh Off the Boat – “Hi, My Name Is…”
YES
Why Uzo Aduba wouldn’t change her name:
My family is from Nigeria, and my full name is
Uzoamaka, which means “The road is good.” Quick lesson: My tribe is
Igbo, and you name your kid something that tells your history and
hopefully predicts your future. So anyway, in grade school, because my
last name started with an A, I was the first in roll call, and nobody
ever knew how to pronounce it. So I went home and asked my mother if I
could be called Zoe. I remember she was cooking, and in her Nigerian
accent she said, “Why?” I said, “Nobody can pronounce it.” Without
missing a beat, she said, “If they can learn to say Tchaikovsky and
Michelangelo and Dostoyevsky, they can learn to say Uzoamaka.”They can learn
I’ve worked with many exchange programs on campuses, and they still “encourage” Chinese students to choose English names for their stay in the US. I’ve adopted a rule for myself, I won’t address them with their English name until they’ve told me to stop trying their real name on at least three different occasions. My family is largely immigrant, and while we’ve never had this problem, I don’t think anyone should have to change who they are when them find a new home, even a temporary one. So far, only two exchange student actually wanted to keep their English name, and one of them, Alice, had had Alice for a nickname since she was little.
Don’t know if it’s okay to add this here, but I used to work with a Chinese woman who had changed her name to Angelina for the sake of ease. When she first told me that was what she’d had to do, I asked her for her real name and if she minded me calling her that. She looked so frikkin happy, and it only took about two minutes for me to say it right. It’s not that people can’t pronounce these names, it’s that they won’t. It’s lazy and it’s rude.
It’s also RACIST.
Say ‘racist’.
They pronounce Tchaikovsky and Schwarzenegger just fine.
^THANK YOU. Babies of color,
MAKE THEM SAY YOUR FUCKING NAME. ALWAYS.
ALL OF THIS
When my mom was working at a temporary job just after graduating from uni, she had to go by Karen instead of her real name. Her real name is a pure Tamil name that has deep meaning and she is very proud of it. Of course, being a fresh grad and trying to start out she had to acquiesce and go by this random English name. She eventually left the job to pursue teaching, but I always wondered why having gone through such an experience (and my father had his name shortened by work too) she still named me and one of my brothers with pure Tamil names that are difficult for non-native speakers to pronounce and names that often get butchered by others (the other brother also has a pure Tamil name but it’s easier on the tongue). I also wondered why she didn’t switch to a nickname when referring to us, why she insisted on correcting everyone who mispronounced our names. And then I learnt that she gave us these names for a reason and that names have meaning and carry power (quite literally in my case) and that our names are something we must become, something that shows what we should aspire to achieve, her hopes for us. After hearing this, I realised that names are given for a reason and they have great meaning; if you cannot pronounce it correctly at first, rest assured that I will correct and teach you as many times as I need to so that you say my name with all the respect it deserves. I will not sit here as an accomplice to your butchering of my name and my culture. I will make you learn.
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