social sciences $€ £ ¥ Article Going by an English Name: The Adoption and Use of English Names by Young Taiwanese Adults Ivona Baresova 1,* and Marcel Pikhart 2,* 1 Department of Asian Studies, Palacky University in Olomouc, 771 47 Olomouc, Czech Republic 2 Department of Applied Linguistics, University of Hradec Kralove, 500 03 Hradec Králové, Czech Republic * Correspondence: [email protected] (I.B.); [email protected] (M.P.) Received: 1 April 2020; Accepted: 23 April 2020; Published: 24 April 2020 Abstract: It is easy to understand why Taiwanese students play the part of the name assigned to them in English class, but why do so many of them continue to use this name long after their school years? A survey of young Taiwanese adults, with follow-up interviews, investigated how and why they acquire and use an English name. The results mirror previously reported tendencies and suggest some new insights into the motivation and functionality of this practice. The data show that self-identification with their Western name offers pragmatic social and cultural advantages, including international identity, escape from rigid cultural formalities impeding social advances, establishing friendliness without getting too close, as well as self-expression. As concerns the often discussed nature of English names, the results indicate that the selection of an English name is influenced by Chinese name selection practice, the tendency to make the name unique or somehow related to the Chinese name, and especially by its intended role. As in previous studies, we found some unusual names, but these were used mainly as a nickname in communication with peers. Keywords: English name; Chinese name; Taiwan; pragmalinguistics; sociolinguistics; naming practices; identity; nickname 1. Introduction In recent years, it has been increasingly common to hear Asian people introduce themselves under their “English name”, although only a fraction of them were born in a western country or into an international marriage. This trend of using English, or more precisely, foreign names, can be observed especially among ethnic Chinese in Hong Kong (e.g., Mathews 1996; Li 1997), Singapore (Tan 2001), Macau (Cheang 2008), Taiwan (Liao 2000; Chen 2015), and also mainland China (Lee 2001; Edwards 2006; Henry 2012). While the practice of acquiring and using an English name can be at least partially ascribed to the challenging pronunciation of Chinese names and specific Chinese naming practices (e.g., Jones 1997; Li 1997; Louie 1998; Liao 2000; Chen 2016; Guccini 2017, etc.), including the relative flexibility of having multiple names in traditional Chinese culture, it may vary in some local aspects, having arisen under different historical circumstances and pursuing various aims. Cheang(2008, p. 197), researching the use of English names by the Macanese, noted that in many countries with a colonial past, it is not uncommon for people to receive a name in other than their native language. Mathews(1996, p. 404), who studied the use of English names by ethnic Chinese in Hong Kong, pointed out that western names are convenient especially in educational and commercial settings for being perceived neither as formal as full Chinese names or intimate as Chinese given names. According to Li(1997), the Hongkongers who have adopted an English name are called by their Chinese name much less frequently. Other research into the use of English names by Chinese learners of English from the Chinese mainland (Edwards 2006) has indicated that English names can be imposed by teachers of English (cf. Sercombe et al. 2014), and that the widespread practice of adopting Soc. Sci. 2020, 9, 60; doi:10.3390/socsci9040060 www.mdpi.com/journal/socsci Soc. Sci. 2020, 9, 60 2 of 11 English or anglicized names reveals the users’ attitudes, both positive and negative, to British culture and learning English. Chien(2012) found that using English names positively influences the English learning attitude of Taiwanese elementary school children. A number of studies discuss the nature of English names adopted by ethnic Chinese (e.g., Lee 2001; Liao 2000; Heffernan 2010), pointing out that many of these names significantly differ from names typically used in English-speaking countries, and attribute this difference primarily to the influence of Chinese naming practices. However, it remains unclear in what situations such unusual names are actually used. The above-mentioned papers address the issue of the adoption of English names by ethnic Chinese from various perspectives, and with the focus on various target groups, including, for example, ethnic Chinese students staying abroad (Heffernan 2010; Chen 2016; Guccini 2017; Schmitt 2019). This paper explores the practice of acquiring an English name among the Taiwanese, and the functions that these names are seen to fulfill outside of English class, in their adult life, not only when communicating in English, but also in Chinese. While it is expected that most adults in their 20s and 30s have acquired an English name, as the acquisition seems closely connected with the Taiwan’s education system, the aim of this research is to provide insights into the motivations for its continuous use in their adult life. The research also investigates the perception of the relative importance of their English name, and from this perspective considers their particular name choices as well as the manner and circumstances in which they use their name. Furthermore, we question to what extent the adoption and use of their foreign name outside of English class has become an integral part of Taiwanese culture. 2. Methodology The initial data for this study were collected through a survey questionnaire (Google Forms, English and Chinese versions) (Please see English version in Supplementary Materials) filled out by 76 respondents, 61 females and 15 males, age 18–41. Since the goal of the research was to understand the motivations for the continued use of English names by young Taiwanese adults, which is a qualitative question, we chose a smaller sample size questionnaire complemented by follow-up interviews, rather than a sample size sufficient to support statistical analysis, although noticeable trends were pointed out in the paper. The questionnaire survey was conducted in the autumn of 2019, shortly after 40 of the respondents had arrived at the Faculty of Informatics and Management of the University of Hradec Kralove, Czech Republic. They came for one semester from various study fields from several different Taiwanese universities. Three respondents worked as teaching assistants at the Department of Asian Studies at Palacky University, Czech Republic, and the remaining respondents were in Taiwan, reached through one of the teaching assistants. The gender imbalance was caused primarily by the predominance of women at the universities. However, there was no indication that gender was a significant factor among our respondents, so no attempt was made to seek gender balance or to divide the respondents into two groups by gender. Questions raised by the responses to this initial survey were further investigated for more in-depth information during interviews with 11 respondents at the University of Hradec Kralove, who either expressed interest in the research or were asked to clarify some answers, and, additionally, the 3 respondents at Palacky University. The mother tongue of the respondents was mostly Mandarin, in a few cases Taiwan Southern Min or Taiwan Hakka, but all of them were fluent users of Mandarin. English was their first foreign language, which they had studied for at least 10 years, and most of them enjoyed using it. With regard to their education, they either were enrolled in or had graduated from at least a bachelor’s degree, and most had experience studying, or at least traveling abroad. Soc. Sci. 2020, 9, 60 3 of 11 The structure of the questionnaire, which consisted mostly of open-ended questions, was as follows: The first part solicited the abovementioned background information. The second part inquired about the circumstances under which the respondents acquired their first English name, who had given it to them and when, and how many times they had changed their name. We sought more detailed information concerning their currently used name, including why they selected it, their satisfaction with it, and its perception in respect to their Chinese name. The last set of questions focused on how and why the respondent uses their current name in interaction with foreigners, and with other Taiwanese. The follow-up interviews followed the structure of the questionnaire and were used to clarify the meaning of some responses and elicit more detailed information concerning issues raised by the survey. Additionally, the respondents were free to express their feelings and viewpoints, which exposed further aspects not included in the original questionnaire. The comments by the respondents cited in the following section to illustrate the various points under discussion come from the questionnaires. Those written in Chinese are presented in English translation. The research was conducted with a limited number of respondents who might well be better educated and more global than their peers, although, as explained above, the respondents staying in the Czech Republic had just arrived and it was, in most cases, their first stay abroad. Thus, their stay in Europe might influence their future use of their English name but not so much their responses to the questionnaire. 3. Results 3.1. Acquisition of an English Name as an Established Practice within Taiwan’s Education System Heffernan(2010, p. 33) noted that the English names of Hong Kong respondents in his survey tended to be chosen by a family member, but not so in Taiwan, the Mainland or Korea. Although some of our respondents stated they had received their English name from their parents, at birth, or a few years later, the majority received their first English name from their first teacher of English at an educational institution, most of them during either pre-school education or elementary school education, the rest when in high school.