A few years ago, a relative of mine and her husband adopted a baby from Guatemala. They named him Giovanni, a very Italian name. I found this a little odd since he's not Italian. The parents are Italian, but not directly from Italy. They are either the children, or grand-children of Italian immigrants (I'm not sure which). This certainly gives the baby a wide variety of ethniticities, being Guatemala but raised American with an Italian name. I wonder what he thinks of this combination and what he associates himself with. How connected can he feel to his adopted parents Italian roots since they are not his, despite the name? Does he ever feel like it doesn't fit him, since he is not Italian? Or does he simply accept the entire culture of his adopted parents as his own? In which case, does he forsake the Guatemalan? I haven't seen him since, so I don't know, but our discussion made me think of him.
~Becca
Giovanni seems to be in a tough position, but not an impossible one. I think it's entirely possible for him to embrace his Guatemalan roots and his Italian family, all while living in America. This might lead to an unusual mix of traditions, but I see that as exciting rather than bad. I would imagine that it's a personal issue, and it's his decision as to whether he wants to embrace all, some, or none of his ethnic roots.
ReplyDeleteColin
This brings up Hayakawa again, and the importance of names. He could let his name define himself, and forget his Guatemalan roots, or he could realize that "the name is not the thing" (not in the explicitly Hayakawa-like way, of course) and continue his Guatemalan traditions in a more American way, resulting in the "unusual mix of traditions" that Colin talked about.
ReplyDelete-Audrey
I think the way we associate names with ethnic backgrounds is interesting. Probably all names are specific to a country/ethnicity/religion but they don't stand out as much as, say, Giovanni. "Victoria" and "Elizabeth" are probably English, "Rebecca" is Rebekah which is Ribhqāh which is Hebrew, and "Chloe" is from Greek, and I would continue except Merriam Webster is unhelpful with everybody else's etymologies. But our names don't represent our ethnicities, and if they by coincidence do, then there's no correlation between the person's identity and the person's name. I'm not British and my parents picked this name because they liked it, not because I'm British and then name is British. I think my name is more widely used by people of more ethnicities than Giovanni is; over time, Giovanni probably won't be as associated with Italy as it is now. I think people shouldn't judge (make conclusions about) Giovanni based on his name.
ReplyDeleteIt's a little different with last names, though, because last names are passed down through children. First names are passed down like this to an extent, but not nearly as often as last names. But people associate some last names with certain countries/ethnicities/religions and make conclusions about the person based on their name. And this is of course because when people aren't thinking semantically they tie identity with names and titles together extremely quickly. (Desk versus point-at-desk, yay Hayakawa).