What’s In A Name?

When a couple selects a name for their child, it’s usually a private matter. They might ask family members about using a family name. They might consult references for popular or historically significant names. Although some countries regulate what you can and can’t name your child, in America, anything goes.

At least, anything goes if you are white, or a celebrity. People of color or from different countries of origin might also think about other issues, such as, “Will choosing this name mean that my child will get teased in school, or have a harder time finding work?” That they have to consider such issues is an indictment of the prevailing culture.

Names that sound “foreign” to white ears, names white people don’t know how to pronounce or spell, face a host of criticisms and challenges from the dominant white culture. In this private family matter that is none of their business, white people seem to feel it is their right to discourage naming children with anything other than “white” names.

That discouragement takes many forms. Job applicants with ethnic-sounding names get fewer interviews (Ladders, 2/24/2017). White male applicants for graduate school get more attention than applicants with names that sound like other ethnicities (Chicago Booth Review, 5/21/2016).

And then there is this advice given by Dear Abby to a gentleman whose wife is from India and wanted their child to have an Indian name.

“Not only can foreign names be difficult to pronounce and spell, but they can also cause a child to be teased unmercifully. Sometimes the name can be a problematic word in the English language. And one that sounds beautiful in a foreign language can be grating in English.

I hope your wife will rethink this. Why saddle a kid with a name he or she will have to explain or correct with friends, teachers and fellow employees from childhood into adulthood?” (Dear Abby, 9/13/18)

There in a nutshell you have the white culture’s response to any name that sounds “ethnic.” It is this ear bias that the entire white culture needs to address. What you name your children is your business. What other people name their children is their business, whether or not they choose a name that is “foreign” to your ears, or a name that requires you to learn to pronounce and spell something you have never had to pronounce and spell before.

Naming is one among a complex set of determinants that form our identity. Naming is often used – including by whites – to connect a child to the family, the culture and the heritage to which he or she will belong. For example, one friend of mine named his daughter Caledonia, out of love for their Scottish ancestry. Another whimsically called her daughter Chanel, because she was number five among the children in the family.

The problem arises when whites want Asian Americans, African Americans, East Indians and all others to connect their children’s names only to the dominant white culture. There is no one white culture, nor is white the normative culture. We are a nation of many cultures and ethnicities, dominated only by our ethnic diversity.

The problem is deeper than that, though. We behave as if names from other cultures are inferior. We dismiss people with names unlike those common to the dominant culture. We react as if the name means the person is of lesser value, likely to be less of a student or less of a worker, not worth considering for that job or that degree.

Or the banker deems someone with such a name unworthy of a loan. Or the landlord thinks a person of that name is a higher risk as a tenant. Or the doctor makes assumptions about poverty, health and education based on names, and treats people with certain names with less respect (Confronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care; NAS, Washington, D.C., 2001).

Our identities are part of our complexity as human beings. We have ethnic identities, gender identities, professional identities, body image identities, family role identities and so on. For some reason, people who are solid in their identities as members of the dominant white culture are easily threatened by a name chosen from another culture or ethnicity. It is yet one more indication of white fragility – a too quick reaction of insult or upset by any reminder that other cultures and ethnicities exist and are part of everyday life in America.

In France, a writer appearing on a TV show arrogantly told the host, whose parents are Senegalese and Mauritanian, that her name was an insult to France. That closely resembles the reaction of many conservatives in our country who consider anything outside of names common to their own culture as un-American.

Here is the truth. To be American means more than having a certain name or a certain culture. We are remarkable for our diversity in every regard. No one is more or less American because of a name, or a political affiliation, or a style of dress, or a religion or any other defining characteristic. We are all Americans, and equally proud of our ethnic and cultural identities.

So please, name your child any name you want to give him or her. Resisting white supremacy requires this, too – that we all give beautiful, proud, ethnically vibrant names to the children who will be creating a more perfect union.