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This doesn't surprise me at all. Even if the effect described in the article is not conscious ("let me pay this person less, since he's a foreigner[0]"), I hav
by chimeracoder 13y ago
This doesn't surprise me at all.
Even if the effect described in the article is not conscious ("let me pay this person less, since he's a foreigner[0]"), I have no trouble seeing how it could happen (unconsciously), based on my own personal experiences.
My first name is very difficult for Americans to pronounce because (A) it is not phonetic; and (B) even a phonetic spelling would include sounds not common in English.
My last name is actually an Anglicisation of the original family name, so it's entirely phonetic. Even still people have trouble saying it. That one confuses me to this day.
The impact on my life of having a tough-to-pronounce name is usually subtle, but it's noticeable in minor ways. I can imagine that these would add up in the long run (perhaps not for every individual, but in the aggregate).
[0] That said, let's not discount the impact of being able to identify a person's race by his/her name (the original Freakonomics book goes into this a lot). I have a friend who has a very obviously Chinese name, and he started putting "US Citizen" at the top of his resume, because so many people thought that he needed visa sponsorship, even though he was born in the US.
Another friend of mine is white, but his surname also happens to be very common for Koreans. He's had a few funny interactions where he walked into an interview and the person was momentarily surprised to see a blonde, white man instead of an Asian interviewee.
- nickff 13y agoIs it not also possible that the people with Anglicized names are a self-selecting group with high emotional intelligence quotients, or who possess generally above-average self-awareness? Both of these traits are indicative of career success, and make one more likely to change their name.[1] [1] http://www.eiconsortium.org/reports/business_case_for_ei.html http://www.eiconsortium.org/reports/business_case_for_ei.htm...
- chimeracoder 13y agoThere are a number of reasons I'd question this line of reasoning, but the biggest one is that many of us did not have a choice - our names were changed without our consent.
- nickff 13y agoOh yes, I am by no means certain about my line of reasoning, but emotional intelligence and self-awareness are inheritable traits; so even if your parents or grandparents changed their names, it would still indicate an increased likelihood of your possessing these traits.
- epi8 13y agoThe point is that a lot of the time immigrants who received Anglicized names did so not because they chose to, but because they happened to get an immigration officer who gave them an Anglicized spelling on Ellis island.
- levosmetalo 13y agoEven if that is true that doesn't contradict the conclusion that having anglicized name helps to earn more. They are inteligent, and they realized the fact their US collegues earn more just because of name, so they changed the name, leaving the gap even bigger for ones that kept up with their original name.
- eurleif 13y agoIt's possible they changed their name because they wanted to blend in, but that other things they did to blend in were what caused their success, not the name change.
- codfrantic 13y agoOn your unusual first name: Jimmy Carr: "I got talking to a girl in the front row; I asked her her name. She said, 'It's Pataka.' I said, 'That's an unusual name. You don't hear that every day.' To which she replied, 'Actually, I do.' " http://www.cc.com/video-clips/0miodh/comedy-central-presents-crossroads http://www.cc.com/video-clips/0miodh/comedy-central-presents... Joke starts around 1:50.