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Any Suggestions for My New User-Friendly Name?

By Jack M. Balkin

Ever since I left Hawaii for the mainland U.S. I have had to assist and reassure people who find my Okinawan name intimidating. Brian Zenkichi Tamanaha is impossible to say, after all. (Blame my immigrant grandfather for this tongue-twisting name, which was his, except for the "Brian" part.) I'm sympathetic to their predicament, of course, as I have no idea how to pronounce many Polish, Russian, German, Serbian, Lebanese, Italian, Turkish, Indonesian, and so forth, names. That is a major inconvenience of "melting pot America." The good news is that a Texas legislator has a solution, reported here:

During public hearings on the voter identification legislation in the House, state Rep. Betty Brown, R-Terrell, suggested that Asian-Americans might want to adopt names that are "easier for Americans to deal with" when they want to vote so their names will match what is on registration rolls.

Brown made her statements during testimony from Ramey Ko, representing the Organization of Chinese Americans....

"Rather than everyone here having to learn Chinese -- I understand it's a rather difficult language -- do you think that it would behoove you and your citizens to adopt a name that we could deal with more readily here?"

Brown went on to say she was not asking Asian-Americans to change their names but "transliterate" them in a way that was consistent for English speakers.

Brown later tells Ko: "Can't you see that this is something that would make it a lot easier for you and the people who are poll workers if you could adopt a name just for identification purposes that's easier for Americans to deal with?"

Democratic Chairman Boyd Richie said Republicans are trying to suppress votes with a partisan identification bill and said Brown "is adding insult to injury with her disrespectful comments."

Brown spokesman Jordan Berry said Brown was not making a racially motivated comment but was trying to resolve an identification problem.

Now why didn't I think of that!

Okay, so I've opened the comments to solicit proposals on how I can "tansliterate" my name to make it more user friendly for Americans. All suggestions will be seriously considered. (I've already thought about and rejected Tahaha. It's simple, but lacks gravitas.). If no one comes up with a suitable replacement, I'll go with "Brown," "Smith," "Jones," or something along those familiar lines. "Brian Brown" has a solid American ring to it.

Thanks in advance.

Full post as published by Balkinization on April 10, 2009 (boomark / email).