Hello, My Name is... An inside look on four Asian American girls and their birth names This comparison makes them more “foreign.” The decision to use one culture’s name over the other is a deeply personal one as each person relies on their own unique perspectives to come to their decision.
Yewon Lee, a UF health science sophomore, identifies as Korean American. She came to the U.S. in 2009 and received her U.S. citizenship during her senior year of high school. Like Patel, Lee originally hoped a more American name would make her life easier.
What makes a name “American”? Diana Boxer, a linguistics professor at the University of Florida, explains that an American name is one that sounds familiar to Americans. For example, the names Sarah and John both sound familiar, and they are two very common names in the U.S. Then what makes a name “Asian”? Boxer says that an Asian name is one that sounds foreign to Americans, making it “cognitively difficult to process and, perhaps, remember.” For example, the names Amisha and Yewon are less common in the U.S. and, therefore, less familiar to Americans, especially in comparison to names like Sarah or John.
24 | fall 2019
I’m proud to have a cultural name because it makes me feel closer to home and my ethnicity. — Amisha Patel Izin Ton, who is also a sophomore studying health science at UF, has a more complicated cultural background but still shares the same sentiment as Patel and Lee: her Asian name holds a deeply personal value. Although her parents are Chinese Vietnamese, she identifies as Chinese American. She says that she loves her Chinese name because it was given to her by both of her parents, and it serves as a way to “stay rooted” to her culture. On the other hand, Asian Americans given both an Asian name and an American name at birth tend to give out their American name most of the time. According to Boxer, one reason for this is that an American name is simply more practical. Because Asian Americans live in the U.S. and are surrounded by other Americans, using their American name is often more natural and a way to assimilate into the culture. Even Lee, who only has an Asian name, confessed that she didn’t always like her name because it prevented her from assimilating into American culture.
design/Anusha Rao
“I thought having an American name would help me fit in better,” Lee said, “but now I don’t think I need to have
Both Patel and Lee are Asian Americans who were given an Asian birth name only. They share the same mindset, in which they wished they had an American name at some point in their lives, but gradually grew into their Asian name as they got older. And now, they take an even stronger pride in their Asian name.
photography/ Lauren Witte
“When I was younger, I didn’t like having an Asian name, and I wished to have an American name to fit in more,” Amisha Patel, an Indian American political science sophomore at UF said. “I love having an Asian name now, and I’m proud to have a cultural name because it makes me feel closer to home and my ethnicity.”
an American name just because I’m in America. It’s a name that my parents gave me, and I want to keep it as it is.”
by Michelle Lee
A
misha. Yewon. Izin. Mercy. What do these four names have in common? It’s hard to figure it out just by looking directly at them, but they are the first names of four different Asian American girls. It may not seem like it, but it’s true. Not all Asian Americans go by an American name, and not all of them go by an Asian name.
