Why Do Migrant Parents Give Their Children Distinctively Ethnic Names? Evidence from a Pre-registered Analysis

Michelangelo Landgrave ()
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Michelangelo Landgrave: Princeton University

Journal of Economics, Race, and Policy, 2023, vol. 6, issue 1, No 2, 19-33

Abstract: Abstract Bearing a distinctively ethnic name imposes a significant cost. Bearers of ethnic names experience discrimination when searching for housing, applying for jobs, contacting government officials, and even when running for political office. Why then do migrant parents give their children distinctively ethnic names? The literature proposes three non-mutually exclusive hypotheses: the price theory, the signal hypothesis, and the identity hypothesis. Using survey data from the 2020 Collaborative Multiracial Post-Election Survey, I find strong support for the signal and identity hypotheses. Analysis was pre-registered prior to the author gaining access to the dataset. Migrant parents appear to prefer giving their offspring ethnic names to facilitate non-market interactions with close community members (signal hypothesis) and as an expression of identity (identity hypothesis). These results not only advance our understanding of name giving, which is intrinsically important, but also help us better understand parents’ decisions to invest in the socioeconomic assimilation of their children.

Keywords: Immigration; Assimilation; Names; Discrimination (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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DOI: 10.1007/s41996-022-00104-w

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