“I haven’t heard the term ‘negroid’ before, but I didn’t like it being used to describe you,” I told my wife after an interesting day. I was asking a stranger’s opinion on a graphic that peripherally included my name and my wife’s, and the conversation had quickly derailed upon noticing Sera’s unique name instead of the content of the piece.

Some of you may be thinking, “What’s so unique about the name Sera?” While that is the name she typically goes by, that’s actually a derivative of her middle name. Sera’s first name is far more unusual and reflects her African heritage, hailing from her home nation of Madagascar. I’ve purposefully not written about her using her first name so she could have some sort of anonymity in this public column that so often references her. I didn’t hide her name because I feared people would judge her for it, but that thought did cross my mind following a conversation I recently had.

A name is very important. It can shape who a person is and where they go in life. The person talking with me, who did not know the names on the paper he was reading belonged to myself and my wife, imagined the accompanying graphic wasn’t reflective of these names because it would not reflect the stereotypes associated with people of color — namely poverty. I was startled by his line of thinking, but I realize a man of his age grew up in a different time. His world view was formed many years ago and is unlikely to change. Unfortunately these judgements based on someone’s name are continuing into my generation.

Raven-Symoné, the 29-year-old co-host of “The View,” recently drew criticism around her comment stating, “I’m not going to hire you if your name is Watermelondrea. That’s just not going to happen. I’m not going to hire you.” Let’s say Sera’s first name really was Watermelondrea. She shouldn’t be penalized for a name that is different simply based on the uniqueness of her parents. Perhaps Watermelondrea was named after the livelihood her parents had in China — growing watermelons. She shouldn’t be penalized because of that for the rest of her life.

I’d love to see an admittedly older study from 2003 re-visted where researchers sent resumes with white and nonwhite sounding names, and the results were astounding. A summary of the article details just how revealing the results were. “The authors find that applicants with white-sounding names are 50 percent more likely to get called for an initial interview than applicants with African-American-sounding names.” I’d like to think this data has changed over a decade later, but as my wife was searching for jobs last year, I highly suspected the trend continued. In fact, I initially encouraged her to change her name to Sera on her resume, but we decided against it as her legal name is important to have on all of our documents until she can become a U.S. citizen. Thankfully she is gainfully employed and contributing quite a bit to our community through her career. But that could have been completely different had her employer stricken her from the list simply based on her name.

The importance of a name is particularly relevant to us now that we have the responsibility of giving one to our baby girl. If she ever wanted to work for Raven-Symoné, we’d have to rule out Watermelondrea (for a brief moment, I moved that name to our No. 1 spot just because I could). A name not only shapes how people will perceive them, but it can also shape how someone perceives themselves. Sera’s first name means “good and sweet,” and her parents named her that for a reason. Matthew means “gift of God.” Our names have shaped the opinions of ourselves and who we have become. That’s a big deal, and something we definitely considered when choosing our little girl’s name. I think we selected something great, but I’d hate to even have to think about choosing something that would hold her back from success if it’s a name we truly desire. Shakespeare famously wrote in Romeo and Juliet, “What’s in a name? that which we call a rose

By any other name would smell as sweet.” What’s in a name? Clearly much more than I originally thought.

 

Rochester resident Matt Knutson is the communications and events director for United Way of Olmsted County.