Please call me John: Name choice and the assimilation of immigrants in the United States, 1900–1930

Pedro Carneiro, Sokbae (Simon) Lee and Hugo Reis

Labour Economics, 2020, vol. 62, issue C

Abstract: The majority of immigrants to the United States at the beginning of the 20th century adopted American first names. In this paper we study the economic determinants of name choice, by relating the propensity of immigrants to carry an American first name to the local concentration of their compatriots and local labor market conditions. We find that high concentrations of immigrants of a given nationality discouraged members of that nationality from taking American names, in particular for more recent arrivals. In contrast, labor market conditions for immigrants do not seem to be associated with more frequent name changes among immigrants.

Keywords: Americanization; Culture; First name; Identity; Immigration JEL classification Code; J15; N32 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Please Call Me John: Name Choice and the Assimilation of Immigrants in the United States, 1900-1930 (2016)
Working Paper: Please Call Me John: Name Choice and the Assimilation of Immigrants in the United States, 1900-1930 (2016)
Working Paper: Please call me John: name choice and the assimilation of immigrants in the United States, 1900-1930 (2015)
Working Paper: Please call me John: name choice and the assimilation of immigrants in the United States, 1900-1930 (2015)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:labeco:v:62:y:2020:i:c:s0927537119301149

DOI: 10.1016/j.labeco.2019.101778

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