North Texas Republican asks Asian-Americans to change their names

[AKA_Monet]

My new Asian converted name is: Tiffani "Walmart" Brown...

And DS,

Katrina is an ethnic name for a Hurricane...

Originally Posted by AKA_Monet

My new Asian converted name is: Tiffani "Walmart" Brown...

And DS,

Katrina is an ethnic name for a Hurricane...

Then we must be related because I'm Tammy "Walmart" Brown.

[AKA_Monet]

Originally Posted by OTW

Then we must be related because I'm Tammy "Walmart" Brown.

[PhiGam]

Originally Posted by DaemonSeid

THUS...MY QUESTION....


AND....YOUR...POINT....IS...WHAT...EXACTLY.


I wasn't addressing 'you' personally!!!!

2nd time today huh?

Keeping count? I think you will survive the experience. It's gonna be ok...need a hug?

I counted... two? Need a midol?

[DaemonSeid]

Originally Posted by AKA_Monet

My new Asian converted name is: Tiffani "Walmart" Brown...

And DS,

Katrina is an ethnic name for a Hurricane...

Katrina is Germanic origins isnt it?

[SWTXBelle]

Originally Posted by DaemonSeid

Coincidentally her and Sheila Lee both rep Texas....LOL

Hey, give us credit. Our crazies come from both sides of the aisle . . .

[DaemonSeid]

Originally Posted by SWTXBelle

Hey, give us credit. Our crazies come from both sides of the aisle . . .

and knows no color....bwuuhahahaha!!!!

[AGDee]

Originally Posted by OtterXO

From what I was told by my grandmother (her parents came to the US through Ellis Island) it wasn't misunderstandings or people not knowing how to properly spell their names, the workers just simply couldn't understand them because they spoke a different language. I don't think it had anything to do with education level unless you were talking about their lack of education in English.

That is what happened with my grandparents, Vincenzo and Ignazia. My grandfather stated his name as Vincenzo and could sign his name, but they said "We'll call you Jim". His name is correct on the ship's manifest. They made my grandmother "Nancy" and her first name is also correct on the ship's manifest. Her last name is the really crazy part though. Half the family is Tirrito and half is Tirrita. So, for family reunions, they made it Tirrit@. On the manifest from the ship, it's Eirrita so it took us a long time to find them. My uncle did some research with the Sons & Daughters of Sicily out of Chicago and settled the last name issue one and for all. It is Tiritto. There were no surnames of Tirrita in Sicily. I think it's a stretch to call it a lack of education when it is truly a language barrier. They didn't know how to spell in English when they first came, but they certainly knew how to spell in Italian. They are understandable errors but both of grandparents could write their names so I don't understand why they didn't just have people do that.

[LucyKKG]

Originally Posted by SWTXBelle

Reminds me of a friend whose Russian ancestors came through Ellis Island. The patriarch could only say "Good. Fine." in English, so when asked for his surname his reply meant the family became "Gorfine".

Haha that's really funny. My family used to be Olsen, but apparently, my great-great grandfather changed it because he thought that was too common. I still have a super Norwegian last name which is pretty pronounceable, but some people think it's Jewish. (It's got "berg" in it. That means "mountain" in Norwegian.) My family was sharecroppers/tenant farmers and they took the name of the family that owned the land once they moved here.

[VandalSquirrel]

Originally Posted by LucyKKG

Haha that's really funny. My family used to be Olsen, but apparently, my great-great grandfather changed it because he thought that was too common. I still have a super Norwegian last name which is pretty pronounceable, but some people think it's Jewish. (It's got "berg" in it. That means "mountain" in Norwegian.) My family was sharecroppers/tenant farmers and they took the name of the family that owned the land once they moved here.

I know that my family took the name with the land, and not of the husband (since that's how we did it in Norway). If I moved to Norway to live with my family, technically I could take our family name, even though I have my father's Dutch/Frisian name everyone thinks is German. If I remember right there are some people who worked our dairy in the states who are "fictive kin" and took our Americanized name. Iverson isn't our real last name, but that's how it shook out at Ellis Island due to language barriers. Oh and my cousin's husband's family has a made up name so they could get better seats at church, that cracks me up.

So really, back to the thread, I don't understand why this is an issue as there are plenty of people with hyphenated names, more than one middle name, or all kinds of variations, and they aren't targeted as a community. It seems somewhat insensitive to target one community as I know plenty of people of Hispanic/Latino descent who go by various names (middle, mother's, other) due to their naming traditions, and I know that community exists in Texas.

[AKA_Monet]

Originally Posted by DaemonSeid

Katrina is Germanic origins isnt it?

Depends on the pronunciation...

Kah-Tree-Nah...

vs.

Kat-rina

vs.

Kuh-treeena

vs.

Kaa-tri-na

[DSTRen13]

Originally Posted by UGAalum94

I don't think people should have to change their names, but it also seems like they could consistently use one legal spelling on all state documents. Did I misunderstand what the difference between their "legal transliterated names and the English name shown on their driver's licenses" meant?

I was confused about this too, watching the clip. If your legal name is one thing - FirstNameA LastName - then how can you have a different name - FirstNameB LastName - on your drivers license, and if you do have that situation, then why would you not expect the poll workers to be hesitant? I never knew you could put nicknames on your drivers license - I assumed it had to match your social security card.

[SWTXBelle]

In Texas you can't put nicknames on your d.l. - and in fact, I had a hard time getting the legal name on my passport and Social Security card put on my driver's license. After my marriage I wanted my name to be Middle-name-I've-always-used Maiden-Name Last-name-of-my-husband. Nope - TX DPS wanted it to be First-name-I-never-use Maiden-Name Last-Name. Luckily, when I moved to TN they put the correct name on that license, and when I returned to TX they accepted the name on the TN license. I wasn't trying to pull anything - my passport (which I would have thought trumped everything else as an i.d.) was no problem to get changed.I just wanted the same legal name on everything.

Moral of the story - call your child by his/her first name.

[OtterXO]

Originally Posted by AGDee

That is what happened with my grandparents, Vincenzo and Ignazia. My grandfather stated his name as Vincenzo and could sign his name, but they said "We'll call you Jim". His name is correct on the ship's manifest. They made my grandmother "Nancy" and her first name is also correct on the ship's manifest. Her last name is the really crazy part though. Half the family is Tirrito and half is Tirrita. So, for family reunions, they made it Tirrit@. On the manifest from the ship, it's Eirrita so it took us a long time to find them. My uncle did some research with the Sons & Daughters of Sicily out of Chicago and settled the last name issue one and for all. It is Tiritto. There were no surnames of Tirrita in Sicily. I think it's a stretch to call it a lack of education when it is truly a language barrier. They didn't know how to spell in English when they first came, but they certainly knew how to spell in Italian. They are understandable errors but both of grandparents could write their names so I don't understand why they didn't just have people do that.

I don't know why either. My family is from Italy too and they decided to change the spelling of my great grandparents' last name for the same reason. For some reason the "lack of education" comment irked me when I know it had nothing to do with that. Although I've noticed that people generally think those who are from other countries and can't speak english perfectly aren't intelligent so I guess it's not too surprising.

[agzg]

My friend is Korean and when they moved here his parents encouraged him to pick an American first name. So he chose Eric. His real name is Hyo (which isn't that much of a challenge) but AFAIK all his legal paperwork uses Hyo. All of his friends know his Korean name and have no problem pronouncing it.

Incidentally, when his younger brother chose his name, he picked Allen. You don't see many teenagers named Allen nowadays.