Names/Nombres

“Names/Nombres” is a personal essay about the author’s experience growing up in the United States after emigrating from the Dominican Republic with her family. Narrated in the first person, it employs a number of anecdotes from Alvarez’s childhood that illustrate how her identity and sense of self shifted upon arriving in the United States. However, Alvarez also describes how her various family members adapted to life in the United States, revealing the different ways individuals cope with and adapt to cultural shifts, even within the same family.

Central to the essay is the issue of naming and The Power Dynamics of Pronunciation. From the moment they encounter a customs officer after arriving in the United States, Alvarez and her family find their names mispronounced, abbreviated, or changed completely to better suit English pronunciation. The individuals mispronouncing their names, like the customs officer, their apartment super, and Alvarez’s teachers, are often members of the dominant culture and ethnicity; they hold a position of power over Alvarez and her family, and their mispronunciation of their Spanish names connotes refusal to respect their culture and identity and insistence that they need to change something about themselves to fit in with American society. Alvarez’s reaction to the customs officer clarifies these stakes: She fears correcting the way English speakers say her name, afraid that she and her family won’t “be let in” (Paragraph 1). She means this first in a literal sense, fearing they might be denied entry to the United States, but later this fear takes on a metaphorical quality as she worries about being accepted into mainstream American culture. 

Through this conflict, Alvarez explores The Connection Between Language and Identity as well as the degree to which a name is tied to an individual’s sense of self. As Alvarez is first adjusting to her “new names” in the United States, her mother quotes Romeo and Juliet, remarking, “A rose by any other name would be as sweet” (Paragraph 4), suggesting that Alvarez will be the same person no matter what she is called. However, the essay suggests that language isn’t just a tool for communication; it is intimately connected to culture and identity. Alvarez is named after her mother, Julia, and her full name contains the surnames of her mother’s and father’s families for four generations, representing deep connection to her family, heritage, and culture. Changes to her name erase this important family history and cultural context. 

Torn between The Desire to Assimilate Versus Staying Connected to One’s Culture, Alvarez spends much of her adolescence convinced that giving up the Dominican part of her identity to fit in with American culture is a fair trade. As the essay progresses, names become a symbol of Alvarez’s shifting sense of belonging. Initially, her name and its many mispronunciations represent her “otherness” and inability to fit into mainstream American culture. However, by the time she reaches high school, her popularity “show[s] in [her] name” (Paragraph 5), her various friend groups showering her with affectionate nicknames. With this shift, Alvarez illustrates how changing a name can be either an act of exclusion or an act of inclusion. The American nicknames that her classmates christen her with mark her as part of a group, establishing her place in American society. Nicknames like Jules, Jude, and Alcatraz make Alvarez feel like she has found a place where she belongs. Her Spanish name, once a source of pride, becomes something that she tries to avoid.

However, this sense of belonging is not without its complexities. As much as she would like to “merge with the Sallys and the Janes in [her] class” (Paragraph 16), she cannot abandon her Dominican identity so easily. Her accent and complexion still stand out among her American classmates, as does her large and gregarious Dominican family. Furthermore, she doesn’t fully identify with her American names. Under the alias of “Judy Alcatraz,” Alvarez can “pursue whatever mischief [she] want[s] to in America” because no one will know who she is (Paragraph 5). This suggests that her American nicknames are less a reflection of her own evolution and more a collection of masks that she wears to control how she is perceived by others. 

The essay closes with Alvarez’s high school graduation, an event that symbolizes her readiness to take control of her own identity and define herself on her own terms. Throughout her time in the United States, she has received a variety of names, some affectionate and some dismissive, but she has never had the opportunity to self-identify: The dominant culture has always dictated the terms of how her identity is perceived.  Even when her family’s names are pronounced correctly, it is at the behest of the mainstream, like when an English speaker corrects Alvarez when she says her sister Ana’s name “the American way” (Paragraph 14). Alvarez’s American graduation, attended by her entire extended Dominican family, illustrates the unification of the seemingly disparate parts of her identity. Her Dominican identity will always be a part of her, but her American identity has become an important part of her as well. Alvarez’s aspiration to become a writer reflects her understanding that language is a means of controlling and constructing identity; taking control of words means taking control of perception and steering it toward something that feels authentic. As Alvarez wonders “which [name] [she] [will] go by” when she becomes a famous writer (Paragraph 32), she laughs, suggesting the joy and freedom of self-definition; the ambiguities of her position are no longer a source of tension but a form of power.