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Ask HN: I want to do a startup in North America. Should I anglicize my name?
I was born and raised in Canada, though I am clearly not white, and have a Muslim sounding name (my name is also sounds female in English, though I am male). I'm about to graduate with a CS degree and start my career - specifically do a startup which involves a lot of networking. I'll be staying in Canada for now.
Has anyone found significant benefit in anglicizing their name for professional expediency? I'm not particularly worried about racism, I just expect it'll make introductions and handshakes easier. How far should I go - change all my legal documents as well, or just professional email signatures?
Would love to hear some thoughts from someone who has gone through the process. Has it ever backfired, or come off as fake? Would also love to hear thoughts from others.
- omarchowdhury 10y agoSatya Nadella (Microsoft CEO), Sundar Pichai (Google CEO), Sanjay Mehrotra (SanDisk Co-Founder), Shantanu Narayen (Adobe CEO), Vinod Khosla (Sun Microsystems Co-Founder). Yeah, I think you'll be fine.