I got curious because my name is a weird and sort of “invented” by American standards, although it’s gotten more popular as I got older (trendsetting before I even mnew how to talk 😎 /s), so I don’t think I could find an Italian or Finnish equivalent. Ditto for basically any other country. I’d have to be some version of John if I moved. Also, I apologize if this is rambly, I’m getting a cold.
It used to be common in the 19th and early 20th century for European immigrants to the US to change their name to something with more American spelling (even if their name was already using the Latin alphabet) right at Ellis Island (so, like, Boiardi -> Boyardee, although he changed his later) to facilitate pronunciation and Americanize people. A lot of immigrants and their kids with foreign names outright changed their names during WWI and WWII due to anti immigrant fervor mixed in with external and internal pushes to assimilate. We don’t have a lot of new European immigrants coming in nowadays but I assume whether they go by their given name or a nickname would probably be a case by case basis. I don’t know what non European immigrants did historically.
Currently most of our immigrants are Latin American, Asian, or African in I think about that order and the pattern differs depending on country/area of origin. I don’t think most Hispanic immigrants Americanize their names – I don’t really hear Juan’s say they go by John. Most Americans do butcher Spanish names and phrases but I think people get close enough that it doesn’t make sense to do nicknames no matter how annoying it gets (or so I presume).
West Asians and Indians tend to leave their name alone and deal with butchering as it comes or occasionally shorten the name if it’s long. I had an economics professor from Iran – great guy, called himself Dr. Nasr, who said we’d get extra credit if we pronounced his name right. I don’t think our class tried at all. Sorry Dr. Nasr :-(. On the other hand, it’s very common for East Asians to go by America nicknames, especially Chinese immigrants and their American born children. You’ll see people who’s native name is obviously Vietnamese or Taiwanese and they’ll go by Sarah, for example. This is probably half for self protection (see: racism) and half for ease of use – even romanized Chinese is hard for most Americans including myself.
I’ve only met a few African immigrants, but none of them went by a nickname or shortened their name. I can imagine this would also be case-by-case too simply because there are a shitton of groups between here and Ethiopia and then any direction you pick from there – there’s not gonna be much consistent about Americanization for the time being.
How about your country? Does it differ from location, or are people able to handle foreign names well enough for it not to matter? Thanks for reading also and have a good day :-). I’m getting my ass some medication lol
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Not really, no. There are many “German” and “Dutch” families with German and Dutch (recogniseable on the ‘Van’) names. Naturally the names aren’t necessarily much different. Same goes for Swedish names. And these are just the large historical immigrant groups.
Recent groups of immigrants (post WW2) haven’t really changed their names either; assuming they come from background where they’re not using the Latin alphabet, they usually just use a common Latinised version. This goes especially for immigrant with backgrounds where the Arabic alphabet is used.
I know one guy and one woman who did it. Both from Poland. Perhaps there’s a pattern there.
Not really not here in Sweden, instead we try to learn to pronounce each others names.
The American fit in idea and make your self more American by removing foreign letter has cause my family to have 3 different surnames in the USA. It is really hard to find who is who,
No, and I don’t think it would be legal to randomly change the spelling of your last name from the way it is spelled in your passport to something else.
I assume you’re mostly just talking about first names – it’s extremely rare to anglicise surnames nowadays.
As in the US, a lot of Chinese or African immigrants either only have English first names, or have native first names but go by English first names among people not from their ethnic group. In my experience it tends to be more common for people from HK or Singapore to have English first names, while first-generation Mainland Chinese will usually only go by their Chinese first names. Among second-generation ethnic Chinese, English first names are more common. When it comes to African immigrants it really depends – I know people of Nigerian origin who go both by English names, by their native names or by some sort of English-sounding nickname that sounds like a corrupted form of their native name (e.g. Missy). I think most Nigerians in the UK are Igbo so I don’t know if it’s related to tribe/religion or just personal preference.
People from South Asia usually go by their native names, but it’s also quite common for them to go by English-sounding nicknames that are just shortened versions of their real given names. So Nikhil might go by Nick, Nasir might go by Naz, Jasminder might go by Jess, Arjun might go by AJ and so on, but on official forms they’ll still write Nikhil, Nasir, Jasminder etc.
My mother’s of Indian origin and she went by several different English nicknames in the 70s/80s when British society was generally much less tolerant towards non-White people than it is today. Nowadays though, she almost always goes by her full Indian name, except with people she knew from back in the day. I went through a brief phase in my teens when I’d introduce myself by an English-sounding nickname, but then stopped when everyone just assumed it was short for a completely different name. I have a cousin who still goes by an English nickname. It really depends on personal preference and how much pride you have in your ethnic identity.
Nobody changes their name after moving here and I feel like most immigrant groups also give their kids born here names from their own language. Basically the only time you see a finnish name on a non native finn is if they are half finnish or adopted.
It depends a lot on nationality. North Africans usually keep and give their children traditional Arabic and Islamic names, Albanians and Romanians (sometimes even Filipinos), on the other hand, often give their children Italian names. I often meet Ukrainians (also because I know quite a few of them) who use their own names but Italianised (often to facilitate pronunciation); I do not know many other people from Eastern Europe to say whether this tendency is also common to others. On the other hand, I do know some Chinese people whose real names I do not know, but only Italian names they have given themselves; however, also among the Chinese there are those who give their children Italian names.
For surnames, this does not happen, and indeed, many old immigration surnames have remained unchanged.
Usually people does not change the names.
Only exception I can think are the chinese immigrants that choose to add a new Italian name to be used here to their real, Chinese name.
So bar Marco is owned by Marco whose real name is Cheng Luipang.
Other immigrants does not do anything similar.
Not at all. We even let people with ć and đ in their names to keep it (these letters are not used in Slovenian but they are in Serbian/Croatian/Bosnian), the same goes for ü, ö and the likes.
Generally uncommon, with the big exception of the russian minority, where many didn’t just get native-ized names, but straight up native german surnames to my knowledge.
Changing a surname is complex and expensive, afaik, and therefore unusual. Picking a Dutch(er/ish) first name is much easier. I’m not sure about it being common, though. I’d say it isn’t, but that’s just a feeling, not a fact.
As you’ve pointed out, It seems to be pretty common in the chinese community to “nativ-ize” their names. My chinese teacher did so.
Latin americans need not change their name, for obvious reasons.
We also have many romanians. I think most keep their name. It makes sense as romanian pronuciation IS not too disimilar.
Last but not least morrocans make the biggest inmigrant group in Spain. I would say the vast majority keep their names, though pronuciation might be adjusted.
I personally shorten my name, because Alejandro is a very tricky name and Alex is about as international you can get. I also, depending on the situation, might change my last name for my second last name for exactly the same reason.
Doesn’t happen much, so do when they gain citizenship but few gain it.
> On the other hand, it’s very common for East Asians to go by America nicknames, especially Chinese immigrants and their American born children.
When I studied in China one of the first things I received was a Chinese name, which then was also printed onto official documents like my student ID. Also almost every Chinese Student I talked to while I was there had an English name and some even asked if I could give them a German name as well. It actually seemed quite important there.
Most immigrants to Sweden don’t change their names and accept that locals may not pronounce them perfectly. The only exceptions that come to mind are Indians and Chinese. Indians who have long names often go by a shorter version, while many Chinese go by some typically Western name that has nothing to do with their actual name. In both cases this is presumably something they do for easier pronunciation but it’s perfectly common for them to use their proper names and as a local, it’s considered basic courtesy to at least make a passable attempt at pronouncing people’s names.
I’m an immigrant myself, albeit an European one, and my name could be changed slightly to have a common Swedish form but I never considered doing that – my name is what it originally is. I’m completely fine with it being pronounced incorrectly but I will myself write and pronounce it as I always have.
You can’t legally change your name that easily in Germany unless it means something inappropriate in German.
It used to be a requirement here for a permanent visa, so we have a lot of icelandisized names until 1992. After we joined the EEA, we figured it would be stupid (and probably against EEA rules). After that this almost completely stopped.