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Few things signal the challenge America faces as it adapts to its evolving demographics more than a name.
Four in ten Americans now identify as non-White, according to the latest Census report, and they are transforming what counts as a common U.S. name.
So much so that when Katherine He analyzed census data of 348 million American baby names between 1880 to 2017, for the Linguistic Society of America, she found that boys are now four times as likely to have “unique” names, defined as “novel, non-conventional names” per 1,000 people. Females are almost three times as likely to have a “unique” name.
“That obviously has to do with an influx of immigrants and names from other cultures coming in,” He said.
Translation: In many cases, “unique” means non-White.
“My parents say I am lucky to have a ‘White’ name. It is better for my future,” said Natalie Sydney Phan, a high school senior from Wichita.
Her parents initially planned to call her Thanh but her mom “begged” for Natalie after Natalie Portman, “scared that no one could pronounce Thanh,” she said, adding that “the struggle to pick the right name is “a story of survival in America … a story of resilience.”
Not fitting in led me to spurn my full name for many years. Then a wave of anti-Asian attacks pushed me to reclaim it. When I wrote about my journey, more than a thousand readers wrote in about how their names had affected their stake in the American Dream and their sense of “Americanness.” These readers, from all different backgrounds and ages, said they faced many of the same questions: Can I call you something else? Where are you really from? What are you?
Some still struggle with the idea that their name is too foreign, too other. Their…
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