Obviously changing names to avoid bullying is not a free choice and then it is the bullying that produces the moral problem. Names themselves should be neutral & parents should not feel pressured to name their kids as a signal of loyalty to cultural heritage or to their new home.
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And my grandfather changed his surname from "Bellafemini" to "Woods" partly because he was embarrassed that it means "beautiful woman," partly coz he didn't feel Italian having grown up in London children's home & partly coz there was a war with the Italians on the other side
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And he was given the first name, Joseph. However, it has always been quite clear to everyone that he is, in fact, Sicilian. People will say this is still European so no prejudice but there certainly was for the first half of his life, at least.pic.twitter.com/ZXa7jCRSLf
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OK, he might also have thought it was cooler!
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It's common practice for Koreans who move to Argentina (they are one of our larger minority groups) to change their names to something Spanish. I feel a bit disappointed by this but they insist it's more polite & appropriate.
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I can kinda understand it, it gets really old having people mispronounce your name all the time. The only person outside the Jylland peninsula here in Denmark to have pronounced my name correctly is one of my Greek friends, who is half Russian and thus speaks three languages.
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I have to say, those multisyllabic Sri Lankan surnames are a challenge even for some Indians...
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I can imagine! I guess I should be grateful to my biological mother for the name "Milinda", which is easy to pronounce for pretty much anybody, heck even my cousin's Japanese wife should be able to do it, hell, next time she visits, she could just address me like that.

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I have a friend called Kshitija. She is absolutely insistent that you MUST pronounce the K & SH simultaneously. Not one after the other. SIMULTANEOUSLY. I know insist on calling her Tija. I'm sorry. I tried. But my mouth won't do that.
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... Sorry, Iona, but I had to read that last bit two times ...
Anyway, one skill I seem to have maintained from childhood is an ability to mimic people, so I can usually pronounce stuff if I hear somebody else do it. -
How? “K” is a plosive phoneme and “sh” is a fricative so that’s near impossible unless you are doing the “k” far back on the soft palate while breathing air through your teeth. I have to hear this magical sound she makes.
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Yeah, I would not know how to do it unless I hear it, and preferably broken down by syllable for stuff like this. Put it this way, I can do a decent job at pronouncing Mandarin Chinese, but I REALLY have to hear things a few times.
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kid from Hong Kong at school ( sorry forgot his real name it was a long time ago) went by a very English sounding name "Nixon", saw his Hong Kong id card once. most people would have had no chance pronouncing it before any other issues.
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I work with a lot of Chinese engineers and they all give themselves English names....apart from “Angelo”, he clearly hadn’t read the instructions properly.
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he sounds like a top guy though
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Honestly, he is my favourite. Very funny in broken English kind of way.
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my guess is he knew exactly what he was doing when he settled on Angelo lol
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It’s singular that he didn’t go with Arturo.
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