In It to Nguyen It

Asian Americans and “American” Names

Asian Americans are often, without choice, assigned Western names at birth. These distinctly Anglo modes of identification obfuscate heritage and facilitate integration. It is common practice, regarded as advantageous. Even those who reach these shores later in life opt for new, disconsonant monikers as a means of assimilation and reinvention of self. Anthony “Ngoc” 1 , an engineering student at the University of Central Florida (UCF), feels that those with American-sounding names are seemingly more approachable than those with foreign names. Pulling from his own experiences, he professes that his name has helped him fit in, that he has met “a lot of Anthony’s.” Perhaps an easy name diffuses the tension of one’s otherness, suggests their acculturation and likeness.

In practice, those with conventional names avoid the indignities of syllabic and tonal mutilation from English speakers. Linda Shih, a biomedical sciences student at UCF, recalled that substitute teachers would blunder her friend’s name, Kailin, while effortlessly reproducing hers. Her name, she remarked, was simply “easier to remember.” The Westernization of the first names of Asian Americans is a sincere kowtow to our dominant language culture. A forfeiture of identity, to alleviate the labor of pronunciation.

And yet, this immense yielding is helplessly usurped by the immutability of lineage. Ancestral surnames, not yet displaced, disrupt the elusive claim of Americanness. Despite the ease with which teachers handled Linda’s first name, her Taiwanese last name, Shih, gave pause. Ngoc, who wields one of the most common A-name for boys, has a less chameleonic Vietnamese family name that demands clarification. The momentary hesitation, the unwitting “how do I say that?” between the first and last name is divisive, delineating East and West. The burden of assimilation being one-sidedly shouldered by minorities fails to temper the inadaptability and stagnancy of monolingualism. Our venerating and pardoning American English speakers perpetuates distortions in cultural understanding. Arianna Chan, a first year at UCF whose last name echoes a renowned household martial artist, receives the insufferable “are you related to Jackie?” nickname, referred to only by relatives, lost to records. Linda’s Taiwanese name, tíng shí, is propitious. Her parents, murmuring over their diminutive infant, urged her to grow “tall” and “pretty.” Upon reminiscing, she considered the ephemerality of the talisman of her parents’ love. Her Taiwanese name is not expressly listed on her birth certificate, mythic.

Our American names, though formalized in writing, are no less holographic. Newly minted citizens might land on names based on appeal alone. Ngoc stated that his name was chosen at random. He contemplated the infinite permutations of identification, that his name “could have been anything.” When asked to hypothetically rename himself, he offered, “David or something.” Chan and Shih were respectively named after a waitress (Arianna) and tennis player (Linda) that captured their parents’ admiration. While both are beautiful names, the path to their nomination was arbitrary. The names themselves are reducible, abstract labels rather than something associative and sentimental.

Though overshadowed in the day to day, any presence of an Asian name tethers one to our mother cultures. Ngoc prefers being called by his Vietnamese surname, a cool, condensed syllable, when with his Asian friends. Chan professes immense love for all of her names--she has quite a myriad--because they each represent various facets of her diverse background. Shih comforts in knowing that her Taiwanese naming, a distillation of her parents’ belief, was meant to empower her. And I would rather have an echo of my mother within my name, with its spirited repurposing, than not at all. Our Asian names, startling when rung, offer a glimpse of another self.

The marginalization of Asian names in our modern nomenclature erodes richness of meaning. Our Asian names--if we are given one at all--take a backseat, fitted as either a middle name, thus abbreviated, or as an informal 1.Name changed to alternate popular Vietnamese last name at the request of interviewee. fall 2019 | 30 30 | fall 2019

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