4 ms·
There's touches of that elsewhere too (hiding race or ethnicity with a name change.) I have an extremely unusual surname in Canada, and most North Americans do
by retrac 4y ago
There's touches of that elsewhere too (hiding race or ethnicity with a name change.) I have an extremely unusual surname in Canada, and most North Americans don't recognize it as European in origin, which has led to assumptions in the past. My grandfather said he considered changing it to something English in the 50s, but ultimately he kept it. I know that, at least historically, some Christian Arabs, Jewish people, probably others, have adopted "white" names upon immigrating, too.
- colechristensen 4y agoQuite a few essentially had Americanized (or for Canada... idk, Canadized? Anglicized? somebody tell me the best word for that :) ) names forced on them upon immigration. My mother's ancestral Norwegian last name wouldn't have worked particularly well in English, my own last name of Danish origin survived unscathed for obvious reasons.
- kalimanzaro 4y agoI used to wonder if the name Yingling was Asian, but it turns out to be the same as Yuengling the beer, which is an odd but phonetically correct rendering of Jungling with the umlaut. ("Youngling")
- TMWNN 4y agoWill Weng, the longtime New York Times crossword editor, throughout his life had people (including me) who thought he was Chinese.
- kalimanzaro 4y agoThat is another Germanic one, probably related to: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wang_(surname) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wang_(surname) >"Europe Scandinavia Wang is also an unrelated surname in Sweden and Norway. It is a variant spelling of the name Vang which is derived from the Old Norse word vangr, meaning field or meadow. Germany and Netherlands Wang is also a surname in the German and Dutch languages. The name is derived from Middle German wang/ Middle Dutch waenge, which is literally "cheek". However, in southern German, its meaning, "grassy slope" or "field of grass", is similar to the Scandinavian surname."