“They Call Me Bruce, But They Won't Call Me Bruce Jones:” Asian American Naming Preferences and Patterns

Abstract

The names of Asian Americans are indicative of their individual and collective experiences in the United States. Asian immigrants and their descendants have created, modified, and maintained their names by individual choice and by responding to pressures from the dominant Anglo-American society.American society's emphasis on conformity has been a major theme in the history of Asian American naming conventions (as it has been for other groups), but racial differences and historical circumstances have forced Asian Americans to develop more fluid and more complex naming strategies as alternatives to simply adopting Anglo names, a common practice among European immigrants, thus challenging the paradigms of European-American assimilation and naming practices.

The Use and Non-Use of Japanese Names by Non-Japanese

“…Early research by Alatis (1955) looked at how Greek immigrants adopted their names in the United States through Anglicization. Klymasz (1963a-c) also looked at such patterns amongst Slavic immigrants in Canada, and similar trends have been found amongst Asian immigrants to the United States (Wu, 1999;Louie, 1991). Although some research suggests that such trends may lessen overtime as societies become more accepting of multiculturalism (e.g., Wu's 1999 examination of naming practices amongst Asian-Americans), negotiating names still appears to be important within the immigration experience.…”

“…This article seeks to establish how common selecting -or not selecting -Japanese names is, as well as some of the factors affecting that, using data from a survey of 138 foreign residents of Japan. Following reports from Becker (2009) and others that immigrants who are more integrated into their host communities are more likely to change their name and Wu's (1999) insight that some groups find their new community more receptive to changes than others due partially to racial factors, I formulated two hypotheses: first, that foreigners do not usually take Japanese (personal) names, and, second, that foreigners of Asian heritage are still more likely to do so compared with foreigners of other races. I also hypothesized that adaptations would still occur in their pronunciation given the restrictions of Japanese phonology.…”

“…Although Gerhards andHans (2009: 1107) note that "(i)mmigrants in multicultural societies will probably feel less obliged to choose nonethnic names to avoid discrimination," suggesting by correlation that in less multicultural societies like Japan there should be more pressure, factors such as one's ability to "pass" may be relevant. While there has traditionally been pressure upon Asian immigrants in the United States to assimilate, the selection of new Anglo surnames has traditionally been rare (Wu, 1999). Wu (1999) ascribes this to racial expectations for Asian Americans: as opposed to Caucasian European immigrants, racially distinct Asian immigrants face expectations of difference that is supposed to be reflected in their names, given that "(m)aintaining an American surname is the ultimate assimilation tactic, because the surname represents and identifies not only an individual, but implies a particular history and ancestry" (32).…”

“…While there has traditionally been pressure upon Asian immigrants in the United States to assimilate, the selection of new Anglo surnames has traditionally been rare (Wu, 1999). Wu (1999) ascribes this to racial expectations for Asian Americans: as opposed to Caucasian European immigrants, racially distinct Asian immigrants face expectations of difference that is supposed to be reflected in their names, given that "(m)aintaining an American surname is the ultimate assimilation tactic, because the surname represents and identifies not only an individual, but implies a particular history and ancestry" (32). Although the largest single group of foreigners living in Japan are Chinese (36.46%; e-Stat, 2012a), people of other racial groups may experience similar burdens to be "different" as Asian Americans do.…”

What are the Biases in My Word Embedding?

“…However, if instead of names we use surnames (U.S. Census, Comenetz, 2016), a cluster "Yu, Tamashiro, Heng, Feng, Nakamura, +393" emerges, which is largely Asian according to Census data (see Table 8 in the Appendix). This distinction may reflect naming practices among Asian Americans (Wu, 1999). Similarly, our approach may miss biases against small minorities or other groups whose names are not significantly differentiated.…”