There are a myriad of reasons why a name becomes a crucial identity for many people. It is because they believe that a name can give power, authority, allegiances, and other special values. In many African countries such as Ghana and Nigeria or Asian countries such as Myanmar, the naming ceremony for a newborn baby is very special for the baby and the family. Even the entire society may become involved in celebrating it. People believe a name will bring the prestigious culture values to the baby that will allow him or her to fit well in the society. A name can serve a variety of purposes. It allows many people to connect with their important culture heritage, and facilitate assimilation in the society; yet, for some people, certain issues such as social or political pressure can cause them to choose one over the other.
One can exploit a name in the assimilation to a new culture. For instance, English names are used as a tool to identify blacks as Americans. In Itabari Njeri’s essay “What’s in a Name,” she argues, “blacks [who achieved freedom] chose common English names such as Jones, Scott, and Johnson … they wanted names that would allow them to assimilate as easily as possible (50).” Through their new adopted English names, Black people show the society that English is their language and America is their home. The American society could no longer differentiate blacks just from the names. For these blacks, they abandon their cultural history over assimilation.
Nevertheless, unlike other blacks, Njeri changed her name from Jill Lord to Itabari Nijeri, a name that is connected to her African heritage. She suggests, “We [blacks who adopted English surnames] are the legal as well as ‘illegitimate’ heirs to the names Jefferson, ...
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...es may probably distinguish my cultural background from my name.
In conclusion, a name can portray one’s ties to a certain culture heritage as well as assist in better assimilation in the new culture and society. Both Njeri and Crasta believe that a name sends messages to the society about what kind of cultural values a person possesses. Certain political problems and social influences cause many people to be bewildered about whether to choose culture or assimilation. However, one has to choose a name that will balance both so that the society can understand his or her bond to the culture as well as the attempt to fit well in the society.
Works Cited
Crasta, Richard. “What’s In a Name?” The Politics of Language. Northampton: Davis, 2011. 53-54. Print.
Njeri, Itabari. “What’s In a Name?” The Politics of Language. Northampton: Davis, 2011. 50-52. Print.
Through out Lawrence Hill's novel names are often linked to identity and have importance for his characters. For example, Aminata's character attaches huge importance to her name. For Aminata it is an inextricable part of her identity. It links her to her homeland and her family. When Chekura says her full African name she is overwhelmed that someone knows her name and describes how this makes her want to live. Having her true name be known is a way of having her identity affirmed and helps her feel connected to her family, home and to Chekura. In fact, Aminata's character defiantly makes reference to her full name, including the name of the town she was born in. Holding onto her name helps her remain connected to the land and people she has left behind and to her own life story and origins. Further underscoring the importance of names in one...
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A name changing the identity of one is exactly what happened to Firoozeh “Julie” Dumas. Before her name change, Dumas was regarded as being one of those immigrants with a name no one wanted to learn. But after changing her ...
Immigration and assimilation is a divisive topic that has been heavily debated in America ever since we became a country. There are two stories that explore the assimilation issue from different viewpoints’; in Mary Pipher’s story; “The Beautiful Laughing Sisters – An Arrival Story”; provides the viewpoint of immigrants leaving a hostile home for America. Elizabeth Wong details her journey to break with her culture and become Americanized in, “The Struggle to be an all American girl.” and (McWhorter, 2010 pp522-529). At debate today is whether immigrants and their families should blend into American culture even if it means breaking with their past. Once cultures intermingle, they are forever changed.
Developing a face within a new environment is challenging. Which in many cases can be a result in an identity crisis, which is defined to be, a period of uncertainty and confusion in which a person's sense of identity becomes insecure, typically due to a change in their expected aims or role in society. Although the move to America is for a positive gain there are also some negative effects inflicted upon the lives of immigrants. Being faced discrimination, possibilities of poverty and broken homes immigrants still make the decision to place themselves self in subsequent societies. Melissa L. Curtin stresses the sensitivities of “Coculturation: Toward A Critical Theoretical Framework of Cultural Adjustment” as well as highlighting the discourses of assimilation and theories of coculturation/acculturation.
names are prevented from being able to reassimilate within society, they are the outcasts. It also
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...of the United States not for the battles and politics, but for the transformation and complexity of language that occurred through the centuries. “I eulogize a literature that is suffused with brown, with allusion, irony, paradox-ha! -pleasure,” (Preface, xi).
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—. Language: Readings in Language and Culture. 6th ed. New York: St. Martin's, 1998. Print.
I have read an account called " 'What's in a Name? " ", which is composed by Henry Louis Gates. This account demonstrates to us a youth experience of the creator that happened amid the mid-1950s. In the article, Gates alludes to an occurrence when a white man, Mr. Wilson, who was well disposed with his dad, called his dad "George", a name which was a prominent method for alluding to African Americans in those circumstances. In any case, Gates' dad needed to acknowledge this separation and couldn't make a move around then. By utilizing sentiment to bring out individuals' enthusiastic reaction, and utilizing suggestion, Gates effectively communicates his claim that name shapes individuals' discernments
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...ermine the causal factors that affect naming practice from that of a sociocultural approach. These specific disciplines depict the importance of social science in understanding “social phenomena” (Lewins, 1992, p.5) and thus understanding the social world within which all humans live.