Should Asians change their surnames?

[betahat]

A Texas congresswoman got in trouble for the following statement, made during a hearing about voting difficulties by Asian-Americans due to different spellings on different documents.

"Rather than everyone here having to learn Chinese," Mrs Brown said to a representative from the group, "do you think that it would behoove you and your citizens to adopt a name that we could deal with more readily here?"

More info herewww.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/5137240/Texan-lawmaker-says-Asians-should-adopt-surnames-that-are-easier-for-Americans-to-deal-with.html

I think she may have spoken poorly, as they say in politics, so we can resist lynching her. But it is an interesting question. When my grandparents first got English language identity documents they actually used my grandfather's given name rather than the family name (a frequent source of confusion). That name stuck with him until he died (though somehow my father and I got the actual family name) but as far as I know he never had any problems. I myself never had any issues despite the fact that my birth certificate and Ontario health card have a bunch of extra names that do not show up in my passport or driver's license. I wonder how the original issue (Asian voters having trouble voting due to multiple spellings) even came up? Anyone here have name issues?
Has anyone come across any anglicized Asian names?

[Groink]

In a word, no. But families should definitely agree on an English spelling of their name. Like Wu versus Woo. And stick with it.

What about those Arabic names? Too hot topic?

[TeeHee]

I read that same story from this link
thinkprogress.org/2009/04/09/brown-asian-names/

from that link, I liked what one responder said in his comment:
"My first girlfriend’s last name was Jaroszenko. The second one was Theodossiades. The third was Li. Tell me which one is easiest to pronounce."

There are plenty of western/European [sur]names out there that are generally more difficult to pronounce, and she sure doesn't say a thing about that. They say "it's not about race", yet the fact that she chose to specifically single out Asians speaks for itself. I happen to have a western first name, and Asian last name, and most folks get tripped up alot more on my first name than my last.

[jenbrook]

^what about sri lankan names?

like.... Chakravarthi Pararajasekaran or Wijesekera Abeygoonewardena or Muhandiram Dharmagunewardena

[jenbrook]

Apr 10, 2009 23:22:46 GMT -5 betahat said:

"Rather than everyone here having to learn Chinese," Mrs Brown said to a representative from the group, "do you think that it would behoove you and your citizens to adopt a name that we could deal with more readily here?"

uh que?? you have to learn chinese to be able to say 'wu' or 'chong' or 'lim'.. but those names are spelt out in english letters, you have to be an ejet to think learning chinese was necessary to say a monosyllabic surname. doh.

[betahat]

It's not really clear from the discussions I have seen, but is it really just a question of "Lee versus Li" and "Woo versus Wu" as Groink points out? The congresswoman's comment makes it sound like the issue is the name itself rather than the adoption of a consistent spelling. I admit that when I say my Chinese last name over the phone they often think it is spelled differently, and I have to say the letters, but it's a pretty minor annoyance. I can't believe that it has somehow become an issue for voter registration.

I'd be curious what the Congresswoman had in mind as an easier name to adopt. Anyway, Jennifer has a point that many East Asian names tend to be much easier to pronounce than names from a lot of other areas. Chinese names are at least very short, even if the different English spellings aren't always phonetically simple.

[admin]

Some of them might want to think about it. Even some first names are suspect. Then you get people who have first AND last names that are doozies.

[palaver]

Asking us to change our names is progress. It means they actually want to keep us around and become familiar on a regular basis.
You know what that means... White at last!!!

Everyone else that is allowed to keep their names--Turks, Mexicans, North Africans, Lebanese, etc.--keep at it. Takes a lot of hard work and good grades to get this far.

[That's why my mother didn't let my grandparents name me. [Anglo given name], [Christian saint's name], then the [Wtf, he's Asian? surname] . What my grandparents wanted to name me meant 'magnificent gift from above' (惠華)--which is nice, except it's also a girls name.]

[Kush]

No, no, no. I have cousins who can trace their family name back generations and understandably take a great deal of pride in it, hang on to it as long as possible if you ask me.
I might even change my surname to my mums maiden name: Yong in the future (my current one is quite boring) otherwise people read my name, hear my voice and think it's a white guy - when I don't want them to think that at all and as I am half Asian, I think I deserve at least one Asian name rather than two English names.
Whatever voting problems there are, I can't imagine they're that horrific.

However, I don't see why they should use different spellings each time. Just get one and stick to it, none of this switching between Wu and Woo etc. That's just too complicated.

[Groink]

I lol'd a bit from the article, where the guy she was trying to apologize to had the surname of "Ko". ;D

"ZOMG!!! How do you even spell/pronounce that!?"

[Subuatai]

I have to say no, Asians should never have to change their surnames or firstnames even. Hell Australia/America call themselves multi-cultural countries, yet other countries worldwide who don't even boast multiculturalism has the ability to speak 4-5+ languages and carry diverse cultures. To this day I still don't understand why so many Chinese have western names.

So there is no excuse for Aussies/Americans to not learn how to pronounce/spell/use different cultural names. Besides, should I really change Subugatai to Sam, and Altanbaatar to Anderson? Sounds like assimilation and subtle cultural genocide to me.

Hell sure my name can sometimes be hard to pronounce for whities but how about Chinese people? Chong, Wong, Lee, Sim, etc - how DIFFICULT is that?!?! One syllable surnames and they're complaining?! o.O

[rob]

Apr 11, 2009 1:26:39 GMT -5 jenbrook said:

^what about sri lankan names?

like.... Chakravarthi Pararajasekaran or Wijesekera Abeygoonewardena or Muhandiram Dharmagunewardena

hey, there's a quadratic equation buried in that post!

[bluegum]

Yeah, she did make it sound like the name itself is the problem. I don't think anyone should change their name to something more anglicized (unless they want to, of course) but invariant spelling of full names would be good.

[Subuatai]

Bleh Anglos, should have been the Dutch to colonise America and south-east-Asia. Then again, they never had that genocidal tendency and colonial mentality, *sigh*, so it would never have happened. No one should have to change their name, or have to make a choice between the country they live and the ancestors how gave them history. I have a habit now to call every Chinese person by their Chinese name instead of their western name. Just as I now call "New Zealand" its true name - Aotearoa.

[milkman's baby]

The problem is not the variation of spelling or difficulty of Asian names. It's that there are like eight surnames for the entire East Asian population in the world (well I'm exaggerating, but you get it). You don't even want to know how many pages Lee or Kim takes up in the phonebook. What every Asian needs to do is take their mother's surname and squish it onto theirs with a hyphen or something so we don't have 59876876489 Mary Wongs running around (no offense if that is your name). lol