Asklemmy

43939 readers

747 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy 🔍

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

Open-ended question
Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

Lemmyverse: community search
sub.rehab: maps old subreddits to fediverse options, marks official as such
!lemmy411@lemmy.ca: a community for finding communities

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~

founded 5 years ago

MODERATORS

Should I change my name? (linux.community)

submitted 11 months ago by ExLisper@linux.community to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

27 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Hi,

So I have lived in Spain now for almost 10 years and I will be applying for citizenship soon. As part of this process I can pretty much chose my Spanish name. Or I can keep my polish name.

The problem is that my name is very polish, like Grzegorz Filipowski. Every time someone has to write it down and look me up in a database I have to show them my ID. When it happens over the phone I have to spell it. Every time I meet someone they ask me what's my name is and then repeatedly try to pronounce it while I say 'yeah... close enough'. It's pretty annoying and it would be solved by simply changing my name to something Spanish like Gregorio González or something.

What do you think? Would you see it as a practical thing to do or as a stupid intent at impersonating a real Spaniard?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] kersploosh@sh.itjust.works 20 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I don't know how it would be received in Spanish culture, but in the US this is common. I know several people with Chinese, Vietnamese, and Polish names who have either adopted Anglo-American names, or changed the spelling and pronunciation of their name to make life easier. In my opinion it's not a big deal. Also, it's fun when you get to know someone well enough to learn their "real" name.

[–] ExLisper@linux.community 7 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Asian immigrants do it all the time here.

[–] MissJinx@lemmy.world 4 points 11 months ago

How do people call you? They may have a "nickname" or a spanish name right? You don't have ro have a spanish name just a more "western" one. You don't have to translate you surname either just "americanize". For exemple Grzegorz Filipowski can be Greg, or Gregor Filipo.