A Name with Two Letters

    Om Khuperkar. Having a long last name that makes up for the two letters in my first name has always been a challenge. As Author Firoozeh Dumas stated in her piece, The F Word, an immigrant name really stands out in a land of “Joes and Marys”. I understand that the mispronunciation of my last name is inevitable, considering that many Americans struggle to pronounce the “Kh” sound in the first place. During my 5th grade promotion ceremony, the teacher who announced each of our names specifically asked for their proper pronunciations, yet when the graduation day came, she she still managed to say my name as “om kuPARKer”. Thankfully she pronounced my first name right but when someone can’t and mispronounces a name that has two letters in it, I am left quite perplexed. My friend circle and the vast majority of my teachers don’t struggle when pronouncing my name, as the sound “ohm” is commonly referenced when discussing meditation, but I will never forget when one substitute teacher pronounced my name as “aum”. At that time, I was in second grade and couldn’t understand why a teacher with a much higher caliber than a 7-year-old failed to pronounce the sound created by two simple letters. 

    Such happenings are rare and for that reason I have never had to contemplate changing my name to conform to the American standard. For this, I must thank my parents for giving my brother (Raj) and I short names. Nevertheless, many of my asian friends have two names; one for their American side and one for their immigrant side. Such divisions cause many POCs to feel lost among their two cultures, fracturing their identities. It’s unfortunate that such precautions must be taken to avoid humiliation, frustration, and even worse, prejudice. Times like these are when I’m reminded of my ethnic roots and how they affect my life; however, instead of feeling ostracized, I feel very unified as, by reading stories like Dumas’, I recognize that many others’ face the same experiences having an immigrant name like me.