Thoughts on a name!

[isis4691]

If I told all of you out there that my son's name is Rhett, what culture/ ethnicity would you think we were? I will explain the situation when I have some opinions on the question.

[Octavius]

Whilst I can sympathise, I still cannot see how the name prevents him getting to the interview stage. Am I being daft here? Are you referring to the name Rhett or your surname which allows people to make the Asian assumption?

[isis4691]

No I don't and the reason for that is that he has actually written several CV's for his friends ( as he had a template) and imput their info which as I have already said is virtually identicle to his. Just because you haven't made a link between his name and the 'Asian' remarks doesn't mean that others won't.

Believe me I cannot see a link either and even so it should't matter.

[jno]

it might be true, in spite of all the objections mentioned here. Yes, why not change his name? You don't have to have deed polls etc, he can just call himself something different. His middle name (as long as it's not Mohamad, I suppose), or just any other name he feels like. A colleague of mine once did this; he'd just had enough of his own first name and applied for work (and got it) under one he preferred. On the odd occasion when anyone in HR asked why his name wasn't the same as the one on his official forms, he just told them (untruthfully) that 'I've always been called this at home'. If Rhett can't find a job, try Waldo or Octavius or Jake or something.

Nonetheless, as jake suggests, you might first like to look through his CV, putting yourself in the place of a prospective employer, and ask if there's anything else on it that might raise suspicions. Do you know any employer friends who might help with this?

[isis4691]

I am refering to his Christian name not the surname.

When my son first started college several boys ask him if he was Asian or Muslim as they thought it was a 'foreign' name; so it is not the first time we have encountered this.

Maybe we just need to put it down to general ignorance about a less than common name- I really don't know!

[isis4691]

I ask my own Uni tutor to look at his CV as we had a discussion about getting jobs ourselves etc and he said it was fine for a young person of his age and limited experiance.

[spudqueen]

Ah, that explains it. I really do have an Asian forename, though I am white. In fact I am tracing my family tree and all I've found so far is English, Irish and one German ancestor (and that's going back a bit!). I am a stay at home Mum, but have applied for part-time jobs and never heard back at all, possibly because they think I'm Asian?

[spudqueen]

Ah, that explains it. I really do have an Asian forename, though I am white. In fact I am tracing my family tree and all I've found so far is English, Irish and one German ancestor (and that's going back a bit!). I am a stay at home Mum, but have applied for part-time jobs and never heard back at all, possibly because they think I'm Asian? What were my parents thinking when they named me??!!

[spudqueen]

Meant to say - not that there's anything wrong with having an Asian name, but why did they choose it?? They are both dead now but I never got a satisfactory answer when they were alive, so no chance now!

[isis4691]

Well your parents were the same as me ,in love with a new baby and not realising the immplications of what they and I thought were just lovely names that you would be proud to call your child. It's the big ,bad world that soon kicks you in the pants and lets you know that not everyone is of the same mind.

Try applying for a job in an 'English' name and see if it helps.

[isis4691]

By the way you shouldn't feel you 'have' to do this but as I've already said my son is considering it, though he doesn't actually want to change his name as he likes it.

[Octavius]

A CV which is fine, is not as good as a good or great CV, perhaps it needs embellishment I really can�t say. Perhaps this Uni tutor might be more forthcoming in trying to raise it from �fine� to �impressive�. I once got interviewed for a job, many years ago by a man whose partner (in firm) wanted to reject my application on the basis that I had done voluntary work overseas for a year. Needless to say, we didn�t get on, I didn�t get (or want) the job in the end. There can be many reasons a CV is disregarded, even down to the font used, the phraseology or the content.

[jno]

no need to change names permanently, isis - the purpose is just to get to an interview, after all. After that he should be able to impress people on his merits.

[isis4691]

He meant it was fine for the type of first jobs he was applying for and he went through it thoroughly-including the font . The small changes he did think should be done ,were done. I've said before that we have covered all the bases and I believe we have, so I cannot lay the blame on the CV, if however he was getting interviews and not being employed we would have to work on what was going wrong at that stage and at least it would be something we could hopefully correct.

[pastafreak]

According to http//www.2000-names.com ,the name Rhett is an ENGLISH surname( now used as a forname) that comes from the Dutch-meaning"advice"