Bamspeedy
CheeseBob
A woman who works in the same building as me started using her Chinese name. She went through 3 different 'American' names before going back to the name her momma gave her.
I haven't asked her, but I wonder if somebody told her that she needed an "American-sounding" name in the US. It's certainly been common here, from time immemorial, for immigrants from all over the world to adopt a new name - a first name or a surname or both - to sound more American. I think in a lot of cases, it was foisted upon them. Of course I want anyone to feel free to change their name if they want to, for any reason - I know a Korean-American woman who prefers her 'American' name to the one on her birth certificate - but I'd like people to feel like they don't have to if they don't want to. In the case of this Chinese woman, I don't know if (a) the pressure to conform has lightened enough that she's comfortable using her Chinese name; or (b) she's just decided to be her own woman and her name is her name, gosh darn it; or (c) she's decided she can't cover her face or smooth out her accent and people are randomly punching Asians in the streets anyway, so f it. I hope it's (a), and (b) would be kind of sexy, but I'm worried it could be (c). I guess I'm choosing to believe it's (a) or (b), which is why I'm calling it a rave, but I feel like I have to acknowledge the asterisk. I don't feel like I know her well enough to just ask.
Depends when they desired a name change.
If they were already thinking of a new name before arriving in 'the west', it's from a desire to assimilate. The belief that things will be easier with a western sounding name. Can't blame the west for this, as most of the time this is misconceptions the person got from their home country about what life would be like.
Name change might not change things as much as they thought it would, but they don't know that before getting here. For some names, a name change can really help alot (if an English speaker trying to pronounce it makes it sound really embarrassing, or is exceptionally difficult to pronounce), for other names there won't be much, if any change at all. It can be annoying to have your name mispronounced, it's so much worse if a mispronounced name ends up being the target of jokes (especially for kids who are more likely to make fun of stuff like that).
If they desire the change after getting and living here awhile, then that is much more likely the fault of 'the west' because it was probably more based on issues they had with their name while living in the west.
My wife wanted to use an 'American' first name, but didn't legally change it, so it was used informally. Don't do this. That just complicates everything, living with two different names. Legal documents, name tag at work, doctor appointments, etc. were using her Chinese name. I talk to someone and mention her or set up an appointment for her using her American name and they think I am talking about someone else. The american name was dropped for practicality since it wasn't a big enough issue to bother legally changing it (changing it on all immigration papers and passports makes it more difficult than your usual name change).
Her Chinese name doesn't look complicated to pronounce, but it is 99% guaranteed it will be mispronounced, because the spelling of the name goes against what every English speakers would think to pronounce it (the ones to get it right have previous experience with that name). She just accepts that people will always say it wrong, doesn't correct people until she feels closer to them.
Her daughter has a name that would look more difficult for an English speaker to get right, so is more often asked for pronunciation instead of assuming they can get it right. In school in kindergarten, teachers say it wrong (despite meeting the teacher beforehand and telling her the right way to say it), she didn't correct the teacher, then it got to the point that was her name and she herself would be telling people the wrong name. So at a birthday party me and her mother are being told by her classmates we are saying her name wrong!
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