Why do first-generation immigrants prefer to name their children with American names? Are they ashamed of their culture or do they just want their kids to get Americanized as fast as possible?

16 comments

1. Dunno, ask your father why he hit random letters while the font was set to Wingdings for your name.

2. You would have to ask the parents. My parents are immigrants but from an anglophone country so my name fits in fine,

3. I don’t think any immigrants are ashamed of their culture. Usually its the extaxt opposite, immigrants are generally proud people.(of both their old and new country) Some names are hard for English speakers to pronounce. Especially in languages that use tone much more than English. Traditionally it took several generations to fully assimilate. However now it happens much faster. Having an Americanized helps children assimilate faster, although at the cost of the families traditional culture.

4. It’s an effort to fit in to the US. I went to high school in an area with a large immigrant population, and most of them had “white” names.

5. I know a lot of people who don’t give their kids “American” names. Most Italian Americans (and a lot of European Americans in general) are several generations removed from the immigration experience. A lot of Asian Americans choose American names because they’re easier to pronounce for English speakers, but probably all Indian Americans I know don’t have an Americanized name so it does depend on the group.

   Assimilation is very much a thing and doesn’t necessarily have to do with being “ashamed”.

6. In my experience, it’s usually just for ease of pronunciation and that normal desire by kids to “fit in”. Of all the kids I knew in school who went by an “anglo” name, about half now go by their given name as adults.

   It was funny, a few of them would pick names that were common enough in media, but that were unknowingly a little old fashioned sounding. I had geometry with three guys named “Harold”, for example.

7. Practicality and dealing with conscious and unconscious biases from Americans. It’s much less to do with the immigrants’ feelings than with Americans. A guy named Kyle seems a lot less foreign than a guy named Qiang. Gives kids on the playground one less difference for them to pick on when they’re already going to make fun of you for looking different, or eating “weird” food, or whatever because kids will pick on any difference and immigrant kids are more different than most.

   An actual real world consequence, my friend has a common Muslim name and he gets more job interviews when he uses an Americanized nickname on his resume.

8. Of the people I’ve known, it seems like they just want their kids to fit in and recognize that their children’s peers have a hard time pronouncing names from their homeland

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10. Definitely about assimilation in my opinion. Also just making it easier to pronounce someone’s name.

    I know some actors like Oscar Isaac and Charlie Sheen use those names bc it makes their job easier which is interesting.

11. If my wife and I moved to France and had a baby I can imagine where we would at least consider choosing a name that sounds more like its surroundings.

12. In general, its an anti-bullying/anti-racism measure.

    As an american with immigrant grandparents and a name that is not at all culturally relevant to us aside from my parents being MASSIVE lord of the rings nerds- People in this country will harass you and assume for anything and everything they can. Including doctors, employers, juries, and secretaries of any kind!!

    i have been asked on several occasions if im “sure [im] not haitian” and if ive “always been white”. My first name is Welsh. My last name is French. Im whiter than sour cream, despite my family being mostly Portuguese. I have walked into so many offices where people have been genuinely alarmed that I am exactly who I say I am. i didnt actually get any job interviews using my birth name, only when i used a more stereotypically “white-American” name.

    Americans, in general, have no clue what ethnicity you or may not be if you have a “white-American-sounding” name.

13. If I grew up in Germany, I’d hope my parents would name me something more German like Dominik or Karl rather than a name like Ming or Xue. Same goes for the US, assimilating and fitting in with the locals helps out a lot when growing up if you’re going to make this place your home.

14. This isn’t a recent phenomenon. People anglicized their names as far back as the 1800s. I suspect part of this is pronunciation. I can’t pronounce my family name as it is said in the old country. English speakers favor different sounds.

    One of my best friends came from Taiwan, and her husband can’t pronounce her first name. I can only say it with great focus. She adopted a western name.

    Similarly, emphasis on syllables differ in countries. Most western speakers struggle to correctly pronounce Indian names. Many Indians will choose western names or shorten their name to a western friendly name.

15. I imagine it has something to do with why people change their name when they come here. I worked at a Chinese owned company and there were a lot of people with typically English names like Kevin, etc. I guess they did it to make it easier on us instead of having us call them a name that we are pretty much completely unfamiliar with how to pronounce.

16. It’s less about be ashamed about their culture and more about wanting to their kid to succeed. In their eyes, to succeed or at least to be more likely to succeed you need to fit in.