Many of my foreign-born students have names that are difficult for native speakers of English to pronounce. Some of them decide to change their name to a similar sounding English name, and others prefer to keep their original name and just accept the fact that they will have to teach people how to say it.
Research suggests that your name affects the level of success you’ll achieve in your career. There is an interesting article about an NYU study that found that people with easier-to-pronounce names often have higher-status positions at work. According to this study, “easy-to-pronounce names (and the bearers of those names) are judged more positively than difficult-to-pronounce names.”
Read the full article here.
What are your opinions on this topic? What are your personal experiences?
Here are my thoughts:
- Your foreign name may contain sounds that do not exist in English. Will it bother to hear your beautiful name wrongly pronounced ALL the time?
- If you keep your original name, be prepared for regular comments such as “What kind of name is that?” and “Can you tell me your name again?” Will that annoy you after a while?
- Some people may actually perceive your accent to be stronger due to your foreign-sounding name. It happens subconsciously.
- If you are getting a job which requires you to regularly interact with new people, a name that is easy to pronounce will make life easier. But if you work with the same colleagues every day, using your foreign sounding name would be much less of an issue. You’ll have time to teach everyone how to say it.
Whether you choose to change your name to a similar sounding English name or prefer to keep your original name, my suggestion is to be consistent. Be sure to use the same name on all job materials and on all social media outlets, whether it’s a nickname, a middle name or even your harder-to-pronounce first name.