My name comes from a soap opera in the 1970s that my mother enjoyed. It has no ethnic significance at all. It may be reflective of the soap opera/housewife culture of many white women in the 1970s. My name is often mispronounced, most annoying was when the priest at my wedding said it wrong for the entire ceremony. I thought it was symbolic of how he didn't know me well. I think of it the same way with students - If I say their names wrong, I must not know them well. I had a student who told me I could call him Sam. He was from Iraq and his name was Husam, but people didn't say it correctly, so he shortened it for the convenience of his white teachers. I used his proper name, but not many others did. He said it didn't bother him as much as saying his name incorrectly bothered him. I don't think he should have settled for either option: Say his full name correctly. At my wedding, the priest said my name wrong for an hour. In school, some of his teachers said Husam's name wrong for three years. That is certainly an educational barrier - How could he have felt accepted by us if we couldn't be bothered to learn to pronounce his name correctly?
