Many Asian Americans tend to go by anglicized names. When in doubt, try to think up of Asian American celebrities with Asian names working in the U.S. It’s possible but pretty difficult. Now try coming up with Asian American celebrities with anglicized names: Lucy Liu, Disney’s Brenda Song, YouTube sensations Kevin Wu (also known as “KevJumba”) and Ryan Higa (also known as “nigahiga”).

According to a study published in Steven Levitt’s best-selling book, Freakonomics, “White and Asian American parents…give their children remarkably similar names.” The sentence could imply that most Asian American parents do not give their children Asian names. But maybe a better question to ask is “Why do some Asian Americans who have Asian names at birth choose to adopt anglicized names?”

NU Asian polled 35 Asian American students about their names. Of this small sample, 69 percent of these students had official anglicized first names. Another 14 percent went by American names, though their official names were Asian.

So why go by American names? Is it because their parents did not want them to be discriminated against when applying for jobs as suggested in Freakonomics? Is it because of the exoticism of having an American name? The answer may be much simpler: many people often mispronounce Asian names making it more convenient to have anglicized ones. The agony of having to correct others every time they call out your name wrong or having to override the spelling correction that insists on changing your name to “honeybee,” only the victims would know. Mary Lin, a Weinberg sophomore, said she faced name pronunciation issues early in her childhood.

“People pronounced [my middle name] ‘Yue’ as ‘You,'” Lin said. “So, before I legally changed my name late in elementary school, I’d have an issue while waiting at the doctor’s office. When it was my turn, a nurse would come out and call out, ‘You…?’ No one would respond initially and yet they all thought it was them. I’d get up awkwardly, and be like, ‘Yep…That’s me…'”

Of course the people who mispronounce traditional Asian names are not to blame. The pronunciation errors usually stem from a linguistic limitation. For instance, Chinese is a tonal language with four possible vocalizations even for single syllables, and the alphabet doesn’t have a means of indicating all the required intonations. In the case of Korean names, there are often double vowels, such as “yu” or “ye,” that have to be pronounced quickly as “iu” or “ie.”

“I started going by my American name around fifth grade or so,” said Weinberg sophomore Cindy Hong. “A teacher of mine refused to call me by my Korean name because she couldn’t pronounce it. That was the breaking point, and after that it kind of just happened more and more often. Now only my family uses my Korean name.”

Of the students polled, 42 percent of those with anglicized names are called by their Asian names at home. This “double identity” might stem from immigrant or first-generation Asian parents calling their children by names that are familiar to them. In that case, it is likely that Asian American parents sought to give their children “mainstream” American names out of consideration that their children were to grow up in an American society.

Yet there are Asian Americans who stuck to their Asian names and their reasons vary.

“I went through a phase or two throughout my life when I introduced myself to others as Daniel,” said Hahnbi Sunday, a McCormick junior. “It was pretty embarrassing whenever teachers paused before attempting to pronounce my name. But in high school, I guess I grew into it, and other people got it as well. I guess for me, there’s a sense of pride in having a Korean name, partially because it’s of my heritage and partially because it’s something out of the ordinary.”

Weinberg sophomore Myung Jun Kim experienced a change of heart as well.

“I actually went by the name ‘Tony’ until the end of high school,” Kim said. “But after spending a summer in Korea, I realized I was too proud of my Korean-ness to keep going by a fake American name. So I changed back to ‘Myung.'”

However, a middle road does exist for Asian Americans who want to keep their Asian identity without having a name that sounds “too Asian.”

Jay Chang, a Weinberg senior, said Jay is the direct English phonetic spelling of his Chinese name. “In a sense, it serves as both an American name and an Asian name,” he said. “An Asian name under an American disguise! My parents were crafty immigrants because I know they did it intentionally, perhaps to help me fit in easier because they thought I would be an awkward kid and needed all the help I could get?”

So, is Romeo just a name? Asian American parents may have chosen anglicized names to help their children fit more smoothly into American society. Or perhaps names were chosen to remember a certain cultural identity. Would you be different if you were called something else all of a sudden? Remember the love and care that went into choosing your name and you’ll find that you are just the same, beloved person even without that title.

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