Why Is Naming Important In Children

For students, specifically of immigrant parents or ELL (English-language learners) where English is not their first language, a teacher who is not prepared to meet the needs of an ELL student, knowing how to correctly say the students name can be critical step in helping them adjust to school. But for many ELL’s a mispronounced name can make both student and teacher uncomfortable. In “Teachers, Please Learn Our Names: Micro-aggressions and the K-12 Classroom.” Rita Kholi, a professor at the University of Riverside and Daniel G Solorzano a professor of social science together state,

In Firoozeh Dumas’s story, “The F Word” from Funny in Farsi: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America (2003), Dumas recalls her struggle of growing up in America with an Immigrant name. She begins her story by telling us the similar struggle her brother, cousin, and friends went through right along side of her. The kids at their school took their Iranian names, which had a special meaning in their country, and turned them into a cruel joke. She goes on to tell us that all the immigrants knew that moving to America would come with its own set of new challenges, but nobody expected to be the joke of the school because of their names. Her name, Firoozeh, which means “turquoise” in Persian, translated to “Unpronounceable” in America. At the age of twelve, Dumas was fed up of the laughing and name calling. She tried to simplify her life by adding an American middle name to her impossibly hard to pronounce Iranian name. Her decision for an American middle name grew intenser after kids began calling her “Ferocious” in fifth grade. That summer when she moved to Newport Beach, she declared to her family that she wanted to add an American middle name to her name. Immune from mockery, she asked for suggestions from her family members and she finally settled with the name “Julie” as her new American middle name. That afternoon, she introduced herself for the first time as Julie to a neighbor girl her age, who coincidentally was also named Julie. Her life in sixth grade became much simpler because people were actually remembering her name for a change. There were only two problems: people spoke poorly about immigrants in front of her because they didn’t see her as an immigrant with her American name and she no longer felt like herself.

Her essay is aimed at Middle Americans or other immigrants living in the country who face the same issue as her. Having a name that is uncommon and hard to pronounce, can be a challenge for the peers of those with the names. The claim is not being made toward the easy to pronounce Bill’s, Susan’s, and Richard’s. The claim is also not aimed at professionals or people of

Culture is an invisible bond that connects people together. The literature, art, religion, food, and language of a community represent its culture. Navigating between cultures is not something impossible to do, but there are a lot of limitations and sacrifices to make in order to blend in with other cultures. To respond about the cultural navigation issues and benefits, Manuel Munoz, the author of “Leave your Name at the Border”, talks about the importance of the non-Americans’ names, especially Mexican Americans’ names, to their identities. Munoz wants readers (Americans) to give everyone the respect they deserved as human beings, starting with accepting and using people’s real names. However, Andrew Marantz, the author of “My Summer at the

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.

Life, people say, is made up of many sacrifices. For many second generation Americans, this sacrifice comes in the form of cultural and identity abandonment. Rather than integrating themselves into the American culture, many second generation immigrants feel the need to assimilate and adopt another culture entirely. Immigrants with non-European or typical “American” names often create an English name that is easier to pronounce. When it comes to job applications, second generation immigrants also downplay their roles or membership in culture clubs. This assimilation is often linked to higher socioeconomic levels, as studies from two Harvard professors have shown that people with whiter, American names are more likely to get job interviews or

When immigrants move to another country, some use English first names while others maintain their birth names. Koreans are one of the ethnicities that more commonly use English first names once they immigrate to North America. While previous studies have focused on relations between identity and English name adoption as well as reasons behind immigrants’ English name use and birth name maintenance, little research has examined the phenomenon with an ethnographic focus. Through qualitative interviews with ten Korean Canadian 1.5 generation immigrants, my thesis portrays the complex processes of English and Korean name acquisition, use and maintenance in different social and formal contexts.

There is a strong cultural segregation between white culture and black culture. A child’s name can be used to measure cultural items. A name defines a person and implies many factors in their life. A person or employer can perceive and make many assumptions of a person just by knowing their name. Some people who do this are viewed as being racist, closed minded, or even prejudice. Although the black power movement had a positive effect, it also had a negative effect since it increased the cultural gap between whites and blacks. A name may just be a name but every story has a name like every name has a story. The story that a name tells makes all the difference of a person getting a call back or not.

One factor that may have a negative impact on ELLs’ school experience and academic achievement is unintended cultural bias on the part of their teacher. Bias is defined by Oxford Dictionaries as “Prejudice in favor of or against one thing, person, or group compared with another, usually in a way considered to be unfair.” I’ve always considered myself to be a person with few biases, however, one unknown bias was brought to my attention this week during the reading. Diaz-Rico and Weed (2010), used an example related to naming practices in other countries. After explaining about the importance of pronouncing and using students’ given names, the authors mentioned cultures that call adults by their profession instead of their

I sat in the auditorium of my elementary school waiting for my name to be called. It was the day of my fifth grade farewell ceremony rehearsals. Our Principal breezed through the names of my classmates, when she got to my classes’ list my name was first. She paused and squinted at the paper as if the font had gotten smaller. She moved the paper closer and pushed her glasses on the tip of her nose. “Hannah... I’m not going to say your last name because I am going to butcher it.” I was instantly filled with embarrassment and I became choked up as I tried to help her pronounce my African last name.

“Name is a fence and within it you are nameless,” (Samuli Paronen) is true because a fence is what acts as a wall to separate people among other things. What’s inside of the fence are your desires and ideals; everything that cannot be defined with just a name. On the contrary, from the outside of the fence there are people who perceive what lies within as well as the fence itself. In this fashion, our names are barriers that separate people from one another in a manner of one's character. Everyone’s got a name and it’s to notify others who you are inside and out.

“The sense of personal identity and uniqueness that a name gives us is at the heart of why names interest us and why they are important to us as individuals and to our society as a whole. In spite of their importance, though, most people know very little about names and about the effects they have on us an on our children in everyday life. In a very real sense, we are consumers of names, and we have a need and right to know about the psychological, magical, legal, religious, and ethnic aspects of our names” (Deluzain).As children grow up, they always wonder where their names came from. Every name comes with a story behind it. For example, I was given the name Ayah Hesham Mahdy. My name originated from my family, who are Egyptian and believe

In school, the first item on the to-do checklist of an instructor happens to be attendance. What’s extraordinary is that the majority of Asian Americans in schools will already have an English name prearranged or request that the instructor use their preferred name, which will undoubtedly be an English name in various circumstances. Once questioned as to why the individual has/prefers an English name the answer is typically that their authentic name is ‘too challenging’ to pronounce. Perhaps this is genuine. Perhaps they are simply being considerate of the people around them. However, when insisted by others that they will take the time to learn their Asian name if they desire to use it, these students still resist and demand to use an English

Four months ago, when I walked up the Memorial Steps and entered my first Childhood Across Cultures class, I was absolutely unaware of how much this class would change my perspective of the world and its cultures. I came to Tufts University with the intention of submerging myself in new knowledge and relationships, and growing as a person. As cliché as it may sound, I hoped to “find myself,” and believed that Tufts would serve as an ideal environment to so. What I did not know, however, was that in order to better know and understand myself, I had to open my mind to those around me.

As an African American child with parents who were Nigerian immigrants, the aspect of feeling accepted was unfamiliar. Just the thought of entering a different place and being surrounded by new people made me want to disappear, but with a distinctive last name, I was hard to miss. In the community/district before entering Alief, there were very few children who looked as I did. Mornings when teachers would first complete attendance, nervousness and anxiety clouded over me. Anticipating the moments to come, I held my breath. "Christine...Ej-..Eji-?", the teacher struggled. As giggles overcame the room, I would keep quiet, nod, and faintly say "present" without correcting the humiliating error in my name. The burden of my last name left teachers to call me out as "Christine E." without understanding the significant effect this would have on me. This left room for the children at school to mimic my name and culture, leaving me feeling scorned and