What's in a name? Sometimes a lot
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Posted March 14, 2008
What's in a name? Sometimes, a source's name reveals a lot about that person, and perhaps an entire culture. Never be afraid to ask about someone's name.
There was a big international story out of Berkeley, Calif., in 2000 about a wealthy hotel and restaurant owner, Lakireddy Bali Reddy, who had been signing fake visas to bring dozens of workers from his village in India to work basically for free in his empire. He was allegedly having sex with several young girls from the village against their will. The story broke wide open when one of the girls died in an apartment he owned.
A reporter with the San Francisco Chronicle flew to Andhra Pradesh, a state in southern India, and wrote a fascinating article about how the Lakireddy family, high-caste landowners, were regarded like gods there and how poor villagers -- Christians who were Dalits or "untouchables" -- thought sending their children to America to work for him was a great opportunity, even if it meant the youngsters became slaves. In this case, the name of his large extended family signified how much power the hotel owner had in the traditional Hindu caste system. The reporters interviewed the parents of the dead girl, and through their voices explained the Lakireddy family's sway over an entire village.
How do you inquire about a source's name, without sounding obnoxious? Don't ask, "What color are you?" "What flavor Asian are you?" Or "What religion are you?" You can simply ask, "Where were you born?" Or, "I've never heard that last name before. What is it's origin? What does it mean?"
Two years ago, I was asked to team up on a story with a colleague who covered higher education. Her specialties are science and college issues. She's quite comfortable in the presence of world-renowned physicists, but the subject of ethnicity scares her. She's white and afraid she'll sound racist if she pries into a person's background. I don't see it that way at all. If you're curious and ask sensitive questions to learn about someone's history and homeland, I feel it makes your interview subject feel respected.
The 2006 story we were reporting started out like this: Californians of Asian descent won more spots in the University of California's freshman class that fall than any other ethnic group, edging out white students for the first time.
My colleague was happy to crunch the numbers (a task I hate) and interview all the college officials (yea!). I had the task (happily) of finding a variety of Asian sources for comment. My colleague asked me, "How are you going to ask them what kind of Asian they are without sounding racist?" I told her it was pretty easy: Ask where someone was born or, if they were born in the United States but have an unusual last name, ask about their parents' birthplaces.
I found one of the sources I needed in a matter of minutes. I called an Indian source of mine, a father with college-age daughters. He called his friends, and I found a young woman whose parents were from Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
I keep a long list of sources arranged by country of birth (for example, I keep a file of Asians, broken down by country) and a list of sources arranged by religion (Sikh, Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Jewish, Buddhist and so forth). Organizing my sources this way allows me to find the most relevant source fast. If it's a story about traffic or baseball, the person's religion or culture doesn't necessarily matter.
In this case, the student's name was Insiyah Nomanbhoy. Since to me it was such an unusual name, it seemed perfectly natural to say, "I've never heard your name before. Where are your parents from?''
Sometimes, a name turns out not to be culturally significant, but it never hurts to ask. This month, a 2-year-old boy drowned in San Jose, Calif., at a cemetery pond while he was attending his great-grandfather's funeral. It was a freak accident and a tragic story. His name seemed unusual, too: Aizik Buno. I wondered what his name meant and whether it might be relevant.
I went to the cemetery and, coincidentally, saw a funeral procession going by. I mistakenly thought it might be Aizik's family, and was curious to learn more about what the priests in white robes were saying and doing. I figured I might have an interesting cultural angle to pursue.
But when I later phoned Aizik's family and asked about the funeral I had witnessed, they told me I had seen an unrelated service. Because I had asked about Aizik's name and where the last name Buno came from, his family revealed that they were Filipino Catholics, and that "Aizik" was just another spelling of Isaac. None of these details were especially relevant, other than mentioning that the great-grandfather had emigrated from the Philippines to bring the entire family to California, and that the family ate Filipino noodles at the services. I'm glad I asked, though. I didn't want to miss an opportunity for deeper coverage, and I'm also glad I didn't assume the name meant more than it did.
Having some prior knowledge also helps. It's valuable to know the general backgrounds of some surnames: Patels are generally Hindus from India, Nguyens are usually Vietnamese, and Singhs are often Sikh. It's like knowing O'Malley is Irish and Goldstein is Jewish. Being familiar with the background of a name might help put a story in context: "Ah, it makes sense the Patels own hotels; that's what their families have done for years in India."
But don't always assume. While Singhs are often Sikhs from the Punjab state of northern India, that name can also mean someone is from the Fiji Islands, or is from India but not a Sikh.
Take me, for example. My last name is Fernandez. And I'm Jewish. My ancestors came from Portugal in the 1400s, although you'd never know it to look at me. Most of my cultural background is Eastern European. I once wrote a first-person article, "What's a nice Jewish girl like that doing with a name like Fernandez?" It was inspired by all the less-than-kind looks I got from Jewish mothers who assumed I was Latina (and therefore, likely a Catholic) and dating their sons. Silly mothers. They should have just asked me about my name.
Lisa Fernandez is a reporter at the San Jose (Calif.) Mercury News. She covers everything from crime to community, and believes that a person's cultural background is often a key motivating factor, but is sadly overlooked by the mainstream media. She has a degree in anthropology from McGill University in Montreal and a master's degree from Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University in Chicago. Please submit ideas or stories for Lisa to review.
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