Are ethnic minorities who use anglicised names sell outs?

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This applies to anyone of immigrant background who has a foreign sounding name and purposely uses an anglicised form of their name or uses a completely different English name instead. Barack Obama did it for a while, used the name "Barry" which people in college knew him as rather than his birth name. It is much more common in the US as you'll see a lot of Oriental/Asian as well as Arabs people adopt English first names (that may be because Americans find pronouncing foreign names a bit tricky) but it is quite common among some groups in the UK. It isn't uncommon for people of Nigerian background to use English names officially but be referred to by their African name among their family. What does everyone think though, are they ashamed of their culture or is this simply an effort to fit in with the rest of us? Is this a good thing or a bad thing?

Big diference between having history and not having it.

Reply 21

callum9999

Original post by LondonKev

The Chinese do it a lot here. They assign themselves a name. Usually an adjective as opposed to a noun from my experience.

An adjective? Which ones? I can't think of any that would sound normal as a name!

And in answer to the original question, no it's not a "sell-out". A name is a meaningless, arbitrary way to identify someone. If they want to change is to a western name then they can do what they want - it doesn't matter or affect anything.

Reply 22

Dogatonic

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.

Reply 23

asparkyn

Not really. A Korean boy came over to our class last year and insisted his name was Kane, after the wrestler. Well, he looked fit to be the part but his name definitely wasn't Kane :lol:

Still, the name stuck and he became known as Kane till our graduation.

Although not entirely related to this thread... in certain circumstances, ethnic minorities have no option but to formally anglicise/"localise" their name. The Chinese who settled in places like Indonesia had to change their names to make themselves sound more local. Tan became Tanuwidjaja, Chan became Tjandra and so forth. I myself don't have a Chinese name. I don't even have a surname listed on my passport, come to think of it :hmmm:

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 24

Tucking Fypo

What, like Kal Penn? His real name is Kalpen, but - according to him, discrimination is still quite prominent. And I'm pretty sure an anglicied name would be more marketable than, say, a Ranjeet.. so maybe that's the reason.

Reply 25

MagicNMedicine

It's up to the individual.

However I would say that false ethnic tags are a little strange. At my school there were lots of British born kids from asian families with Pakistani and Indian names, which sort of seemed fine if they were dark skinned. However there was one girl called Fazia, I think her Mum was English and her Dad was asian, and she was white, and it seemed strange. She used to get picked on a bit for her name where the dark skinned kids with asian names wouldn't.

George Osborne took his middle name George rather than first name Gideon, because he wasn't from a Jewish family and he didn't want the false ethnic marker, which I think is fair enough.

Mark Ramprakash the cricketer is another, he's Mark Ravindra Ramprakash....yes he's half Indian, but somehow Ravindra wouldn't seem right..?

Reply 26

babygirl110

I have a 13 letter name which is a nightmare to say and pronounce. I shorten it to a 4 letter version which I don't even like but then makes my life a whole lot easier.

I definitely prefer having an African over an English name because it reinforces my identity. However, my parents should have been smart about giving me a name and opted for shorter african names , particularly as this fast moving world involves a lot of integration. There were many nice short options available but they had to go for 13 letters.

Baby names certainly won't be welcome from them!

Reply 27

HumanNature1992

As many people have said, it's just a matter of convenience. It's not about selling out your origins.

Reply 28

Tucking Fypo

Original post by babygirl110

Do you have exclamation marks in your name? :innocent:

Definitely agree about the parents thing though. There are some names which are just suicidal, but they don't know any better. :emo:

Reply 29

LeeC

Original post by LondonKev

The Chinese do it a lot here. They assign themselves a name. Usually an adjective as opposed to a noun from my experience.

Haha what names are these?!

Reply 30

babygirl110

Original post by TuckingFypo™

Do you have exclamation marks in your name? :innocent:

Definitely agree about the parents thing though. There are some names which are just suicidal, but they don't know any better. :emo:

Lol no exclamation marks, just two vowels and the rest are consonants. It's meaning doesn't even resonate with me.

Reply 31

philistine

That's absurd. Of course not.

Not many people may like this, though in every single country on the planet, there is a certain 'innocent' contempt and prejudice against ethnic minorities. They may choose to change, or just employ this name to get their foot in the door, so to speak.

Reply 32

Idiocracy

As a self proclaimed namist, I believe that if you have a unique/rare name you should keep it. I weep for all the names lost to Christian/Muslim names... Culture lost forever... I honesty believe that the number of names in the world is decreasing at an alarming rate, this list http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_popular_given_names is going to have less and less names on it in the future.

Reply 33

jumpingjesusholycow

Duhh, clearly all brown people must be called 'Rajvinder' or something of the like :rolleyes:

That's just like, the rules of feminism.

Reply 34

dnumberwang

No because I'm not a sellout :smile:

I have my english name on my passport and everything else and I use my chinese name when talking to chinese people :|

Reply 35

Paul PTS

I'm not migrant, I live at my country. And at TSR I just use Latin form of my Greek name. So no much difference.

Reply 36

damidude

Original post by Brutal Honesty

Most of the people above me who seem English do not seem to have a problem with it - why would they?
But I as a Nigerian born person do see it as a bad thing. I think you lose some of your culture when you kind of dilute your name. Most names have a meaning, so to shorten it kind of negates that meaning. Having said that, there is a difference between shortening a name and completely changing it. When people shorten their names it is usually in an effort to make things easier for everyone, it is not necceserily selling out. But to think of it, is there a good reason why you cant live in the UK without a long name, personally I dont see it as a stonewall barrier, when there are people with names such as francesca dittori and Thammasen Berdych getting on just fine.

James Khan (caan) did it, as a means of opening up business opportunities. So I guess it makes a foreign person seem more domestic.

Reply 37

member569366

Original post by Brutal Honesty

It's probably an effort to fit in (I heard of this pakistani taxi driver in NY who renamed himself Samuel Goldberg) but calling them sellouts is preposterous. The word sellout itself shouldn't be used at all, you make it sound like there's a huge race war going on or something when there's just some discrimination going on.

Reply 38

effofex

How on earth can it be a sellout? I'm sure they are perfectly aware of their original names prior to Anglicization.

I think Anglicization is a great idea as it may often help in maximising their probability of employment.