Very Few Immigrants Americanizing Their Surnames
A long-standing tradition of sorts seems to be falling by the wayside in the U.S., as more and more immigrants are no longer changing their names the way many have done over the last two centuries.
The rationale was that an American-sounding name might speed the assimilation process, deter discrimination and maybe even help with the businesses these immigrants hoped to start in their new homeland.
The New York Times examined more than 500 applications for name changes in June. New York was chosen because it has a greater foreign-born population than any other U.S. city. Only a half dozen or so applications appeared to be for the purpose of Anglicizing the surname. Nancy Foner, a professor of sociology at Hunter College in New York says the trend to not change has been growing over the last few decades. Click to Listen
Podcast
"It seems to be a sort of post-civil rights phenomenon," said Foner.
"Besides, most of the immigrants today are not white, so already they're identifiable on the basis of their skin color or physical characteristics."
Consequentially, a name change won't do for them what it did for Jews and Italians 100 years ago at Ellis Island.
