My name is a crucial part of my identity that shapes my world sense. It’s not only a form of identification but has a symbolic power and reveals my social connections. I remember being adamant my head of year enunciated my last name, Arówólò, properly. My reasoning was she was not just addressing me, but my kin who had come before me. But what happens when individuals who are not part of our culture, have no understanding or care of pronunciation? Not knowing is not an excuse; it becomes your responsibility to learn about the cultural knowledge behind a name to alleviate your ignorance. This measures how you value a person and on a whole, the culture the name is derived from.

I began to wonder about the experience of children of immigrants whose first names were not British or from a culture deemed ‘sophisticated’. Uzoamaka Aduba is an actor most famous for playing Suzanne “Crazy Eyes” Warren in the Netflix series Orange Is The New Black. When she was a child she begged to be called Zoe. Her mother responded, “If they can learn to say Tchaikovsky, Michelangelo and Dostoevsky, then they can learn how to say Uzoamaka.” What was the difference with these names? I could only conclude these names were from cultures that were internationally revered.