The Name Game: How Much Power Does a First Name Have?

Growing up, I did not like my name because I strongly believed it was too short and awkward sounding. I did not see how the name Nadia could be pleasing to the ear or likable at all. The worse part, I thought, was not having a nickname to hide my

Why do people get made fun of for their names when they have no control over them? Firoozeh Dumas’ “The “F Word”” tells about how she gets made fun of for her name. It also is about how Dumas feels about her name. She uses many examples of times in her life when her name has caused problems and made situations difficult for her. Dumas is from Iran, but moved to America when she was young. Her name is “Firoozeh,” which is very different from American names, so many people couldn’t pronounce it. Many of the children in her classes made fun of her name and didn’t want to talk to her because it was so different.

What would it be like to grow up with no friends simply because your name was different from everyone else's? Firoozeh Dumas answers this question for all of her readers when she recalls the struggles of her childhood in her story, “The F Word.” Her story is not about the actual cuss word, but rather the struggle she had growing up in America with an Immigrant name. In her memoir, Dumas uses humor to talk about touchy subjects and to make her piece more enjoyable for her readers.

Names are important to us, as we grow up, our names and our personalities become intertwined, they are how people identify us. So when we adopt a new name, even for a brief period of time, we allow ourselves to essentially become a new person: we can change what we didn’t like about our old selves, and assume new characteristics that we admire in others. For some, it is freeing to embrace a new name, but for others it is comforting to go back to their old one.

In summary, this reading passage talks about the relationship between one's name and his or her personal and cultural identities. Richard Crasta, the author of reading, introduces the relations between name and three types of personal and cultural identities: The cultural background, the wishes of parents, and the impressions even biases on personality. From my personal experiences, most of Crasta's contentions are plausible, yet some are subjective and obsolete.

In the Bengali culture names are chosen before birth and the parents have to write letters to the grandparents asking to choose the name. Each name cannot be chosen twice, therefore you cannot name someone after someone else. In America you must have a name before you leave a hospital. Gogol thinks that “‘There's no such thing as a perfect name. I think that human beings should be allowed to name themselves when they turn eighteen,’ he adds. ‘Until then, pronouns.’”(Lahiri 113). If someone tells you that you have the perfect name that means you uphold all the expectations that come with that name. With each name comes different expectations, in America there are many people with the same name. So you may have met someone with the name John who was rude and left a bitter memory in your life. Then if you meet another person named John you will have that memory that the other John left you and automatically you will not give that person a

This journal speaks on how names are seen as some form of “talent” as it is bestowed upon us on birth. This also has religious implications as some feel as their name is a gift talent given from god. Everyone's name within “their eyes were watching god mean something. An example of this would be Tea Cake. “John Callahan says that Tea Cake "revivifies" names” . The names also have a slightly overshadowed sense of racism, as in a way most of the names given to black people have a sort of dumbed down approach to them. Going back to the complete disregard of the “Afro-American” culture by the

Early on I worked from the premise that people don’t exercise enough imagination when naming their children and merely employ the same names over and over again. Every child in the country carries the name David or Robert or Ann or Mary. Well, that isn’t true and there’s an abundance of unusual, exotic, strong, wonderful names currently being worn with pride.

At birth everyone is given a name by their parents. Your name is part of your identity and how you are addressed and recognized by the world. The different verities among the population created other names given to different races. These names are offensive, demeaning and are only used to refer to a person in a disrespectful manner. They can also cause a segregation among a nations people, these names are forced upon people weather they are rich or poor, old or young, male or female and are used to describe the same race of people. In the class reading "What 's in a Name? “by Henry Louis Gates he reminisces about a personal experience of his that he had with his father. In the story he describes his father was a hard worker and, because of this he was in high financial standings and, he was well respected and given privileges that at the time was rare for people of his race but he was still black and his name, his individual identity was not important instead he was given a racial identity, this is the only thing he was known as, this type of negative recognition is something many black Americans can relate to. One’s race is a predominant part of our identity and is what causes discrimination.

Charles Plant, in his Globe and Mail essay presents this conundrum: “as a grandpa-to-be, I have opinions on what my grandchild is named – if not any influence”, writing about his own, then later his daughter’s, struggles with naming their respective children. Plant goes into detail about our decidedly patriarchal naming system, and whether or not grandparents have any influence in the all-important tradition of the naming of a child. Stripped down to its most basic concepts, this essay is about one of the most prevalent forms of sexism: the tradition of naming all of our children after their paternal surname. Plant believes that children should carry their mother’s surname, though he concedes that mothers in turn carry their own paternal surname, revolutions must start from somewhere. He also highlights the fact that male sons often carry their father’s given and surname, often stylized as “Junior” or “the Second” and so on.

Most people will agree that a name is a very important identity for a person. Beautiful names are usually given to lovely babies. Unpleasant names, however, are often criticized as bad images for people having them. Many children with “ugly” names face discrimination at school and are isolated or beaten by other children. People may wonder why parents can give that kind of “ugly” names to their children while other parents give their children nice and wonderful names. In fact, there are many factors that affect how parents will name their children, and the three main factors are culture, convenience, and socioeconomic status.

A name is not just what you’re called, it is who you are. It is what you stand for and ultimately defines you as a person. Growing up, I used to think my name did not fit me and that nothing that my name stood for had anything to do with me. Now that I am older, I understand the real meaning of my name and how the traits that are connected with my name relate to the person that I have become and continue to develop into. My name represents who I am and who I plan to be.

Juliet from the play Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare says about Romeo, “‘Tis but thy name that is my enemy.” She claims that it is Romeo’s name, Montague, that is her enemy, and not Romeo himself, although Romeo’s name influenced who he was. Most of the time, names are given to people by their family members after they are born. However, there are also people who choose their own names. Most names have a meaning behind them. That meaning doesn’t always represent who we are. In my case, my name has a story behind it. Everyone’s names were chosen for a reason, even if that reason is insignificant.

    Names are a terrible way to understand someone’s identity because names are regularly replicated. In my sixth grade class, there were three Mollys. We all had different backgrounds, different religious affiliations, and different personalities. If our names displayed who we are, wouldn’t our identities all be the same? Instead of staring at names and trying to understand their meaning, one should focus on a person’s personality, for personality depicts our identity. In fact, I have learned from experience to not infer one’s identity based on their name. For instance, in middle school, I was mutual friends with a girl named Kassidy. One Tuesday afternoon, my friend, Katy told me that Kassidy was going to sit with us at lunch that day. I shrugged my shoulders and replied with a casual “okay”. Before Kassidy walked in, I had a whole image of her in my mind: blonde hair, cute pastel colored clothes, and religious, all stereotypes that I thought a person with an innocent name like Kassidy

People with normal names live a privileged life. If your first name is something like James or Emma and your last name is something like Jones or Williams then you have no idea what it’s like to have a name that is unusual or “original.” However, the main characters from the novels The Outsiders and The Wednesday Wars know this feeling too well. Imagine having the name Ponyboy Curtis, or Holling Hoodhood because you could definitely have some trouble fitting in being called by a name like that. The Wednesday Wars is about a 13 year old boy growing up in Long Island during the late 1960’s living through all the politics and opinions in the year but also dealing with small middle schooler problems like having to wear tights in a play and getting bullied by the “big kids”. The outsiders is about a 14 year old boy growing up in Tesla, Oklahoma also during the late 1960’s. However, in this story the kid doesn’t talk about politics at all, instead he talks about his life struggles and real problems like the death of his parents, living a poor life where his two big brothers have to work jobs and not go to school to support them, and his brotherhood with the boys in their gang called the greasers. However, these two boys, despite having very different upbringings definitely have a few things in common, starting with their unique names.