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My long and difficult to pronounce name prevents me from succeeding

Francisco Miraval

In addition to the color of my skin, to the way I speak English, to my ethnicity, and to the fact I am overweight, now I have to add a long and difficult name to the growing list of factors that will prevent me from succeeding in this country, according to a recent report.

The report, published in December 2011 by the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, says that people with short and easy to say first names and last names receive better treatment by their bosses and supervisors and even better grades at school.

In other words, having a short and easy to say name and last name makes it easy to succeed in life, according to Simon Laham, University of Melbourne; Adam Alter, New York University; and Peter Koval, University of Leuven, Belgium.

Perhaps it is not by chance that the names of these three researchers are “Simon”, “Adam,” and “Peter”, and that their last names are short and without difficult pronunciations.

Another study, presented in 2009 by Lief Nelson and Joseph Simmon, revealed that, among college students, those with last names beginning with “A” or “B” usually received better grades that those with last names beginning with “C” or “D.”

Other studies also revealed that people with African-American or Hispanic sounding names are less likely to be called back for a job interview, and that young people with common and popular names are less likely to get in trouble with the law.

However, the so-called “name pronunciation effect" in a new discovery. The three researchers say that the difficulty in pronouncing the last name of a person generates negative attitudes towards that person, regardless of his or her ethnicity. For minorities, those negative attitudes are usually multiplied.

For that reason, people called “Smith” or “Johnson” have better opportunities that people with a last name of three or four syllables and many consonants and diphthongs.

In summary, after people stop judging me for the color of my skin and before they judge only for the content of my character, now they have to first stop judging me for having a long and unpronounceable name and last name.

But, why is so difficult to say my name? Is the difficulty in my name or in the mind of the other person? Many times when somebody asks me how to spell “Francisco,” I say. “It is like the city in California.” The usual reply then is, “Which city?” I am always tempted to say “Santa Barbara,” but I never did it.

Others want to know if they can call me “Frank.” My answer is no, because that is not my name and it never was. People tell me “Frank” is shorter than “Francisco” is. That is obvious, but still is not my name.

I am not trying to “play victim” or to hide myself behind what others may think of me to justify my “failures.” I just want to point out that sometimes discrimination hides in unusual and unexpected places.

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