The story of Rasool, Russell, Russ, Ross ... !!!
(There is an issue with typing English in a blog that the default language is set to Persian, sorry if formatting is not correct)
When I was born, my family decided to put Rasool as my name, a semi-religious and mostly Arabic (and less Persian) name meaning The messenger (from God or someone else like a king, etc!).
Since a teenager, I didn't like the religious taste of my name but changing names was not an option in my culture so I accepted it.
Immigrated to Canada after 33 years of living and quickly noticed that my name is very important here. When people want to know and communicate with you they start with your first name, back in Iran with a less individualistic society family name was more important and the first name was just for close friends and family.
Soon noticed some research and statistics also proves that name is a key factor in getting a job and survive here. The research stated that resumes with English first names get significantly more responses back from employers.
Some people change their names to English names and also put English names on their kids hoping they can integrate easier.
Some people totally gave up their original name pronunciation and pronounce their names as English speakers pronounce it, and they pronounce it incorrectly obviously.
I was not an exception:
The first time I wrote my name as "Rasool" was to get my passport, it was the time I should dictate my name in the English alphabet. There were two options Rasool or Rasoul which I chose the first one because it looked better and simpler.
Strangely, I still don't know what's the correct dictation of my name in English. It seems in English an "A" sound is slightly different from the "A" sound in Persian. Also having an "oo" or "ou" sound right after "A" sound seems very odd for English speakers. Right?
Try saying "A" and then "OU" is it strange for you?
Teaching the English language was not the priority of the revolutionary government at the time I was in school, so I was thought a very distorted and sometimes wrong English. Just one funny example was that when we first started learning English at 13 years age in school the teacher was pronouncing the word "an" like "en". As a kid, I used to say en instead of an for some time until I noticed the reason he was pronouncing it en was because in the Persian language "AN" means Poop! Trying to control the classroom from laughing and going out of Control he decided to change the pronunciation totally.
Long story short, I came to Canada and started surviving like other immigrants!
The closest name to Rasool was Russell so I decided to write my name as Russell! Now the chances I get a response for my resume is higher and also I prevent people to pronounce it like "Rezuul"
I thought that this solves my problem until I was repeatedly asked "What?" Or "Please repeat" when I called myself Russell! Don't know why but I have two theories:
1- I don't know how to pronounce Russell correctly in English which I think is true. (It reminds me of immigrants who put an English name on their kids and they don't pronounce it correctly until the kid learns correct pronunciation in school and asks his/her parents to pronounce it correctly)
2- People don't expect an English name when they see me and ask for my name and look for my real name! Also noticed some people with good intention want us to say our original name. They may feel more intimate or close or caring doing so.
To resolve it I decided to go with "Russ".
It worked for a while until when I said my name is Russ and the lady at the seminar registration desk asked me:
Russ or Russ? (this is what I heard)
Later on, I thought She might have asked me "Ross or Russ"? But obviously, I didn't know the difference and I couldn't distinguish this small difference in English pronunciation. So I looked at her and said, Russ! And I don't know what she wrote!
Time passed and I googled and noticed that "Ross" is more popular and sounds better. So I went with Ross for a while and changed my online profiles etc.
Again it didn't work, I noticed Russell is more close to my original name "Rasool" so when my manager asked me what name I want to go with for my advertising and branding I said Russell!
For a while, I used to say "my name is Rasool or Russell" which is funny I think! It seems like I haven't decided on my name yet!
For a while I used to say "my name is Rasool like Russell" this was to prevent people from looking at me confused! Also to prevent people pronouncing it like "Rezuul"
Years past and thankfully I survived and didn't end up not having a job and becoming homeless. I think the fear is gone now. After all the frustrations in years, I decided to call myself Rasool. I don't think the problem is totally resolved but I go with my exact spelling and pronunciation.
A similar story exists for my last name: pronunciation and also the fact that I don't have a middle name! My last name has two parts separated with a space!
Still, people use it as a middle name or sometimes add a "-" to it. That's another story by itself.
I know similar stories exist for all immigrants, sometimes maybe much worse. I don't know the story of east Asian people or many other cultures and languages.
As English is my third language I am definitely not perfect in writing and pronunciation.
There is no final solution. Until then we would better try to eliminate any sort of discrimination and racism inside ourselves.
Not all ethnicities can pronounce each other's names correctly. Including myself, I may not be able to pronounce your name correctly but it doesn't mean that I don't care about you or we should have unequal rights.
After all, we are all humans, and names were put on us when we were born. Life is bigger than names and also bigger than us.
