Hello, my name is…
Recently, during a professional development day at a small Colorado school, I was modeling community circles for a staff that knew each other well. I quickly taught norms and introduced a prompt everyone would respond to, “Share something about your name that others are not likely to know”. To assure the group the stakes for “high interest” were low, I shared that my name had come from two Aunt Kathryn’s found on either side of my family. As we went around the circle, people shared similar tales of namesakes, hilarious origins of nicknames, and rarely used middle names. When we moved about 180 degrees around the circle the tone changed.
At this point, one educator stated that the name they called her by was not her real name, it was just the name she had used since her immigration to the US, so that it would be easy for others to pronounce. Her telling was filled with mixed emotions. Their listening was filled with quiet concern until one colleague asked which name she preferred; her given name caught in emotion as she voiced her preference.
LA Times columnist, Jean Guerrero, shares her story of Finding power in reclaiming one’s name in this extended NPR interview. Jason Kim’s personal narrative Hello, my name is.. describes choosing a new name in the first days of his arrival in the US and the consequences of this in his family, school and post-graduation life. Their stories, along with witnessing the vulnerability and courage of the Colorado educator informs my understanding and obligation for addressing our colleagues, friends and students in a way that supports their sense of self.
In 2009, I hired an excellent teacher named Subhadra. Rather than clip her name to “Sue”, she had devised a system of breaking her name into syllables and making analogies to sheep sounds to help others correctly pronounce her name. Weeks into her tenure, every student and teacher greeted Subhadra in the way her childhood community and family always had, with her full name. She had shouldered a burden by scaffolding the pronunciation of her name, correcting folks, and patiently insisting on correct pronunciation. I imagine the effort was worth the sense of familiarity experienced when we hear our own name; a familiarity that supports our sense of identity and belonging.
Ruchika Tulshyan writes about how hearing your names conveys a sense of being seen and valued in her article for the Harvard Business Review and she shares her personal story and other research related to why pronouncing names correctly is more than common courtesy in this NPR interview. She also points out how name bias can extend to the workplace, even before you have a job. Recent research demonstrates an American hiring preference for “white” sounding names among employers reviewing applications. One study found that resumes with white-sounding names were 28% more likely to get a callback for a job interview.
Schools are not immune to similar hiring bias. For both staff and students, the correct pronunciation of names can be a way to actively work against racial microaggressions. The personal stories and related research shared here reveal a long-standing, pervasive bias that schools can work against if they actively acknowledge the harm done when names are considered and dismissed.
