Essay 3 Final Draft

How Important Is A Name?

A name can mean many different things to each person. Where some may not see names as having an influence on a person’s life, others believe that names can shape a person’s identity and plans for the future. So how powerful are names? Tom Rosenberg, author of “Changing My Name after Sixty Years,” is an example of how names are important and close to our identity in everyday life. His choice to reclaim his surname, Rosenberg, after it was changed for him when he arrived to America in the 50s, shows that names mean more than we think. Names can help shape our identity; in many ways, they tell us who we are. When our name is stolen, altered or misused, a person can feel a sense of loss. Bonnie Wach, author of “What’s In A Name?” believes in the power of names. Her essay focuses on the impact of names on people, especially unusual names, and observes the evolution and history of name-picking. A name can shape a person’s identity, so name-picking is crucial. Wach has discovered that new parents are picking names that are closer to their heritage and ancestry, “rediscovering” their identities and naming their children in a way that makes them feel close to their culture. These two articles discuss the importance names have when discovering one’s self, and the concepts of Wach’s essay provides the framework for understanding the choice and the need for Rosenberg to take back his surname, the piece of himself stolen away when he moved to America from Nazi Germany.

Wach believes that a name can shape the lifestyle of a person. She believes that an unusual name can affect everyday circumstances in the personal, social, and work life of a person. A few examples she lists are of people whose names seemed to direct them into a particular line of work, such as “Bacon Chow the nutritionist” and “Cardinal Sin the archbishop.” Some names (first and/or last,) are inseparable from a person’s identity, and while some names are in fact harmless, others evoke people to perceive them in their own way, creating prejudices or stereotypes based on the name of a person. After reading Wach’s article, it is easy to see why Tom Rosenberg’s parents would want to change their name when arriving to America. Already trying to escape one country that is filled with hatred toward them, the Rosenberg’s wouldn’t want to take another chance at being hated because of nothing but their heritage and simply where they came from. To escape the harshness of anti-Semitism and discrimination, many families fleeing to America during the uproar in Nazi Germany felt it necessary to change their surname to an Anglo one. In this name changing, people could be safe from anti-Semitism. Rosenberg’s personal experience shows that a name can in fact shape a lifestyle; when one name – his Jewish surname – evokes hatred and prejudice, his new Christian name did not, and gave him opportunities that he wouldn’t have had otherwise:

In the 50’s, I doubt Tom Rosenberg would have been accepted as a pledge by Theta Chi, a predominantly Christian fraternity at my college. He probably would have pledged a Jewish fraternity or had the self-confidence and conviction to ignore the Greek system altogether.(Eschholz, 622)

During this point in history, something as small yet so pertinent as a name could have subjected a person to discrimination because it could tell you something about what culture they’re from, or what ethnicity they are. It did not matter who the person was, or if they were a good person – what mattered was that they were different, and according to most, the difference could first be spotted in a name. As Wach points out, names meant far more than they do today, essentially shaping lifestyles and identities of people. Rosenberg’s curiosity in how his life would have been different if he grew up with his family name shows the effects of a name on an identity and lifestyle. Now, sixty years later, with more acceptance and embracement of one’s culture, Rosenberg felt it was necessary to stay true to his Jewish heritage, and one step toward that was reclaiming the surname he lost when moving to America.

Digging down to the roots of ancestry, as Wach discusses in her essay, is a contemporary way of choosing a name for a child. In this way, children are being given names that have a deeper connection with where they originally came from, ignoring the past feelings of shunning their own heritages to assimilate to American culture. This and Rosenberg’s personal experience, in my opinion, show the evolution of what it means to be American; instead of trying to find names that symbolize only “American” values, more families are embracing their cultures, finding their identity through this deeper meaning of names. Wach reflects on this contemporary “rediscovering – or simply inventing – of roots” with examples of different families from various ethnic backgrounds, and social and economical statuses:

Upper middle class Jewish couples have started looking to their ancestral heritage for 19th century names like Max or Hannah. Working-class African American parents fashion ethnic-sound names with suffixes like la or sha… and educated, upper-middle-class couples of various backgrounds have taken to bestowing gender neutral family names… (Eschholz, 606)

Instead of trying to assimilate to American culture, families are making decisions that are embracing their culture and staying away from the common names. Others, to avoid choosing common names, are creating their own or changing the meaning.In this way, Wach is describing how acceptance and understanding of other cultures is increasingly present when parents pick their children’s names, and as times change, so do the names and how people perceive them. This concept provides the background a reader needs to see when asking why Rosenberg chose to change his name. He, too, is making the choice to embrace his culture. Even though Wach pinpoints the evolution of parents rediscovering their roots through names, Rosenberg is doing the same thing; it does not matter that he changed his name sixty years later, but it is more important that he did it to feel close to his Jewish culture and showing that he is proud of his heritage. His parents voluntarily gave up their surname to escape prejudice, and Rosenberg is taking that piece of his identity back, showing us – as Wach points out – that names really do have importance in showing us who we are, and power over our identities in society.

According to Bonnie Wach, names can shape the way we are recognized and perceived in society. Tom Rosenberg’s need to change his name after sixty years proves that names are very close to us because of the significant meaning they can have on our lives. A name can shape a lifestyle of a person, and it sticks with you, telling a story of “where we’ve been and where we’d like to go” (Eschholz, 603). Besides just new parents finding or inventing their roots, Rosenberg,a man who has lived most of life with an Anglo surname, decided that finding his roots was important to him too. Therefore, names are a significant part of our lives. After all, it is inseparable from who we are as living, breathing people.