What’s in a Name? English Names, Transnational Identities, and Self-Presentation among Chinese Students in American Universities

• In Event: 1547 - Young People Constructing Identities

Abstract

What accounts for choices in cross-cultural naming? What does the use of foreign names reveal about global identities and the desire to fit into a new culture – or not? We examine how international students in a globalized world present their self through naming practices. In particular, we investigate the micro-processes of how Chinese students in American universities adopt and use English names. Drawing on 25 semi-structured interviews with Mainland Chinese students enrolled in an elite Midwestern university, we argue that cross-cultural naming is a set of situated practices that involves three processes by which overseas Chinese students attempt to fit into their new environment. First, building on salient meanings they assign to English names, Chinese students pursue distinctiveness by selecting English names that 1) fit their personalities, 2) differentiate themselves from others, or 3) project an imagined self. Second, Chinese students vary the use of names across social groups and settings, according to both relational intimacy and the relations among their names. Third, power relations embedded in cultural assimilation shape how Chinese students perceive the necessity of taking English names and the authenticity of the self; for these students, names involve a process of negotiation between two cultures, constituting identities that travel between East and West. This multi-dimensional approach to naming practices sheds light on the complex processes of identity construction and presentation in the globalized world.

Authors

• Jun Fang, Northwestern University

• Gary Alan Fine, Northwestern University