As a “nation of immigrants” the story about the ancestor who came to this country and changed his name is a familiar one. It wasn’t that people lost pride in their personal histories, cultures, or languages. Or that something magical happened as they passed through an American port. Many didn’t have a choice, as Anglicization was the standard practice at Ellis Island.
These days we have become spoiled as it sometimes seems the entire world speaks English - at least on the Internet. Our tongues never get the exercise a foreign language provides. Complicated sound combinations stick in our throats. Those with difficult names have the choice to either anglicize or have their names butchered. To some there’s even a prestige in being like actors and authors who commonly change their names. The idea is to fit it and not be judged. I’ve never met anyone who changed his or her name and was bitter.
In the world of the Internet, names are an issue but for different reasons. A good .com is very prestigious but nowadays expensive. And names are getting longer and longer with many .com URLs the length of a sentence. Sometimes they may be easy to remember, but typing them is difficult and error prone. Those selling the sometimes shorter .org URLs want everyone to think of them as creating a better, warmer place - see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLg4o5no1pM.
But get ready New York for short, descriptive, and memorable .nyc domain names that say “Hey, I’m from New York City!” The current estimate is that they’ll arrive in late 2010 or early 2011.
(Commons photo of sign with long town name courtesy of diluvienne.)
