After an awkward silence from a substitute teacher conjuring an unrecognizable mumble of words, alone, students admit defeat and raise their hand under the dimly lit classroom. Name mispronunciation and misinterpretation is a common problematic occurrence that hasn’t been properly addressed.
Name mispronunciation, though usually with good intent, can still deeply affect students as time goes on to build upon each incident—to the point that they all seem to merge to one big series of good intent that has to be dealt with. For Anusha Sivadalla (12) she has been burdened by her name’s hefty difficulty.
“I used to not like my name because it was different from a lot of other kids,” Sivadalla said. “When I was young, I didn’t like my name because it was weird to spell. My last name is really long and my first name has a ‘u.’ My sister’s name is more common, so sometimes I’d like her name better.”
Though Sivadalla is currently acceptant of her name, saying that she likes how cute the name is, she had struggled to accept it growing up because it was established to be different from other kids; a student awaits their name to be called by a teacher alongside other students to only be stumbled upon, detaching them from other students.
Other students such as Sarayu Medasani (11) are able to resonate with this bittersweet view on their name; the pride in their own self-being perseveres their obstacles.
“I can’t imagine myself being anything other than Sarayu,” Medasani said. “Sometimes it makes me feel unique because not a lot of people have my name and there are times I’m frustrated with it.”
Medasani, like many other students with unique names, finds herself having to brace for impact when the new school year begins. With her seat being sat on after a school’s first morning bell ringing, Medasani already expects her name to be mispronounced after a minute’s struggle and raises her hand.
Name mispronunciation can play against a student’s sense of belonging and relation to fellow students. Similarly, name misinterpretation, to mistake a name’s meaning, also is able to enforce self-stigma—sometimes to more severe degrees such as in the case of Isis Izaguirre (12).
“I was named after my mom,” Izaguirre said. “It’s a Hispanic name, origin comes from Egypt, goddess of Isis. But being in a public school, I’ve been forced to see that as kind of derogatory, because of the group Isis and it’s been hard. I’ve had teachers tell me inappropriate things because of it or have called me by my last name because they feel uncomfortable, so it’s been really hard to handle it.”
She had begun to lose hope towards her name.
“A teacher had discussed to the class while he was taking a roll call, how he wished that group would die. He said, ‘Oh, I hope Isis dies,’ and I was sitting right there in front of him,” Izaguire said. “I get that you feel strongly about the group, but it’s just my name, that’s really all it is. I’m just a kid with that name, you know?”
The common mispronunciation and mis-association of names also contribute to a loss of identity.
“I’m starting to accept it. When I did sports, a lot of my coaches would encourage [my name], like ‘Oh, Isis like Wonder Woman or Isis the Goddess,’” Izaguire said.
While the derogation towards their names can be recovered from, no student should ever feel disappointed in who they are and should be proud of what they are called. While in hindsight it may occur that misinterpretation tends to only affect those with rare names, which is likely to be true, it should be noted that a majority of Ayala’s students are of foreign ethnicity—according to USNews’ Report on Ayala, 84.7% of students are ethnically-foreign. A diverse campus must be properly reflective of their students’ background and self-image if they present themselves as a diverse campus.
