In "The 'F Word'", an excerpt from Funny in Farsi: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America by Firoozeh Dumas, Dumas describes life as a young girl with an ethnic name. Aside from being very humorous, this autobiographical essay depicts a story I'm sure countless immigrants in America can relate to. Like herself, her brother Arash would be made fun of for his name by being constantly asked "if it itched". Dumas says, Firoozeh, which means "Turquoise" in Farsi, roughly translated to "Unpronounceable" in English. After being teased throughout her childhood for her difficult name, Dumas decided she needed to choose a simpler, more American one. "[She] chose Julie" and her brothers later followed suit by calling themselves "Fred and Sean". Dumas found that after changing her name life became easier, and "infinitely simpler". In addition to that, people actually remembered her name, which was "an entirely refreshing and new sensation".
When Dumas went to college she decided to change her name back to Firoozeh. "All was well until [she] graduated and started looking for a job". Unfortunately, she could not get a single interview, so she added "Julie" to her resume. "Call it coincidence, but the job offers started coming in".
Although she changed her name to Julie, she still had many family and friends who called her Firoozeh. Dumas compared having two names to being like a "soap opera character who [has] an evil twin". Eventually, she decided to end her 'double life' and revert back to her real name. By then she was a stay at home mom who didn't have to care about job interviews or or people bothering to remember her name. To add, Dumas also lived in Silicon Valley, where ethic names were more commonly seen such as, "Rajeev, Avishai, and Insook".
Dumas claims that she has "found that Americans are now far more willing to learn new names", despite a few close minded people.
If you can relate to Dumas's story, I would love to hear yours as well! Comment down below if you have ever encountered an experience like any of Dumas's mentioned above.
Great story! I know that my grandparents and other family have had to adopt an American name to be accapeted. It is sad to see that tiny things like a foreign name can really hinder a persons life.
ReplyDeleteGreat post Olivia! I have a very similar experience. Being named Minsuk, people did make fun of my name, so I changed it to Brian. Similar to Dumas, my close family friends and family members still call me Minsuk, while the rest of my friends know me as Brian.
ReplyDeleteI can totally identify with Dumas’s story! Even though I wasn’t made fun of, people always found ways to not say my name by creating nicknames. Quite honestly, it doesn’t really bother me, but this is an interesting topic to bring up. Great blog!!!
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