Changing Your Name to ‘Fit In’ in America

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KQED

News, News Commentary, Politics

4.2 • 726 Ratings

🗓️ 18 April 2022

⏱️ 56 minutes

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Summary

What’s in a name? The question originally posed by Shakespeare is also the title of New York University sophomore Aria Young’s winning entry to this year’s NPR College Podcast Challenge. Young changed her name from 杨沁悦, or Yáng Qìn Yuè, when she moved to Pennsylvania from Shanghai for high school because her original name was “too hard for the English tongue to pronounce,” she says in the podcast. But sometimes she feels her adopted last name isn’t quite right either. We’ll talk about what it means to change your name to “fit in” in America, or to have learned your family has done so, and we’ll hear from listeners about what their names mean to them. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:00.0	Support for Forum comes from Rancho La Puerta, a wellness resort in Baja, California, just an hour from San Diego,
0:07.4	recently voted the number one destination spa by readers of travel and leisure magazine.
0:12.8	Summer retreat packages of three, four, or seven nights including hiking, water classes, mindfulness,
0:19.9	spa therapies, and culinary adventures with
0:22.8	farm-fresh ingredients. Learn more at Rancho LePuerta.com.
0:27.3	Support for Forum comes from Broadway S.F. presenting Parade, the musical revival based on a
0:33.2	true story. From three-time Tony-winning composer Jason Robert Brown comes the story of Leo and
0:39.7	Lucille Frank, a newlywed Jewish couple struggling to make a life in Georgia. When Leo is accused
0:46.3	of an unspeakable crime, it propels them into an unimaginable test of faith, humanity, justice,
0:53.4	and devotion.
1:02.6	The riveting and gloriously hopeful parade plays the Orphium Theater for three weeks only, May 20th through June 8th.
1:06.9	Tickets on sale now at Broadway, sF.com.
1:09.5	From KQED. From KQED. From KQED in San Francisco, I'm Mina Kim.
1:24.6	Did you or your family choose to change your name to fit in better in the United States, by shortening it maybe, altering its pronunciation, or even abandoning it altogether?
1:37.3	This hour, we hear from people who've wrestled with their own or their family's decision to quote Americanize their names and why in some cases
1:46.0	they're reclaiming their original ones. You can share your story too on forum after this news. This is Forum. I'm Nina Kim. What's in a name? The question posed by Shakespeare is also the title of NYU sophomore
2:18.1	Aria Young's winning entry to this year's NPR College Podcast Challenge. Young changed
2:24.2	her name when she moved to Pennsylvania from Shanghai for high school because her original
2:29.2	Chinese name was too hard for the English tongue to pronounce, she says in the podcast. Which got us wondering,
2:36.8	listeners, have you or your family done something similar? Changed your name to make it easier to
2:42.1	pronounce or to better fit in? You can share your name-changing story by calling 866-733-6-866-733-6.
2:53.6	You can share them on Twitter or Facebook or Instagram at KQED Forum
	...

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