*ADOPTING A WESTERN NAME IN CANADA By Alan Saldanha*
English names are easier to grasp by white Canadians. If ones name is Siddhu he might do well to say: SeeDoo though Sid is better for the sake of convenience. Canadians prefer known names to tongue twisters. However, they lead white Canadian into thinking an Anglicized means there are layers of immigrants who are better. Fancy new names sometimes reflect the class of the person. Francine Siddhu or Bartholemew “Barry” Parmar shows ingenuity though lacking in pragmatism. But those are from a pool of names sought for by ethnic Indians. “Benny” is a popular name for immigrants from Hong Kong and thus a common name in predominantly Chinese areas of Richmond British Columbia and along Victoria Drive in Vancouver. Ethnic Chinese do not feign Hollywood stereotypes and are not particulary James Bond types. Thus it would surprise if you overhear. “The name is Yap… Benny Yap!” However, not all ethnic minorities have a ring and enjoy such James Bond-like possibilities. Indian names may merit amendment when they sound corny: “Dikshit” when pronounced by North American native speakers can seem salacious and weird. Other names can incorporate a double “whammy” as in the case of “Poopi Brar!” A common ethnic Indian name is “Dave” and little else could be more apt. Dave is the logical short form for Davinder but it is among ethnic females that high-end names like Cherise, Cassandra and Louise are being chosen for second-generation Indo-Canadian girls. They sound unusal but then, that is the idea! Popular Korean names are John, James, Paul and Daniel; whereas, for girls the popular names are Jennifer, Julie, Christine and Grace and Hannah- the last of them being conveniently the same in Korean and English. Second generation Japanese- Canadians talk and think like Caucasian Canadians and somehow English names seem to come to them in a natural course. But they still like to address a friend “Tak”- the short form for “Takuyuki.” Popular English sounding names for Pakistani Canadians are limited and more likely to be ‘Shams’ or ‘Mo.’ The latter stands for Mohammed. Likewise, Iranian Canadians seem to prefer “Tony” or “Sam.” Vietnamese Canadians choose from a wide variety of names though they seem most comfortable with “Wing” in which case the name has not been changed. That is spelt Nyguen. Filipino-Canadians, however, have little reason to adopt a foreign name simply because their names are more Hispanic and therefore familiar to native speakers in North America. People who choose to be addressed by their North American English names sometimes find them a boon for business they are engaged in especially if it is real estate. But sometimes Canadians inquire about the etymology. In that case the listener now has the option of addressing the gentleman as “Balasubramiam”or perhaps the short form "Boller !" Alternatively one can address the person Bal though a South Indian may decline since it is reminiscent of Bal Thackeray. The most popular Indian name which does not need to be replaced with an alternative is "Hardik !" It is a name that epitomizes the essence of a young man who is a "Natural" and does not need Anglicizing. The problem is that a name like that can be a let down if it fails to deliver the goods.
