Arbeitspapier

Please Call Me John: Name Choice and the Assimilation of Immigrants in the United States, 1900-1930

The vast majority of immigrants to the United States at the beginning of the 20th century adopted first names that were common among natives. The rate of adoption of an American name increases with time in the US, although most immigrants adopt an American name within the first year of arrival. Choice of an American first name was associated with a more successful assimilation, as measured by job occupation scores, marriage to a US native and take-up of US citizenship. We examine economic determinants of name choice, by studying the relationship between changes in the proportion of immigrants with an American first name and changes in the concentration of immigrants as well as changes in local labor market conditions, across different census years. We find that high concentrations of immigrants of a given nationality in a particular location discouraged members of that nationality from taking American names. Poor local labor market conditions for immigrants (and good local labor market conditions for natives) led to more frequent name changes among immigrants.

Language
Englisch

Bibliographic citation
Series: CReAM Discussion Paper Series ; No. 08/16

Classification
Wirtschaft
Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
Economic History: Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy: U.S.; Canada: 1913-
Subject
Americanization
culture
first name
identity
immigration

Event
Geistige Schöpfung
(who)
Carneiro, Pedro
Lee, Sokbae
Reis, Hugo
Event
Veröffentlichung
(who)
Centre for Research & Analysis of Migration (CReAM), Department of Economics, University College London
(where)
London
(when)
2016

Last update
10.03.2025, 11:42 AM CET

Data provider

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Object type

  • Arbeitspapier

Associated

  • Carneiro, Pedro
  • Lee, Sokbae
  • Reis, Hugo
  • Centre for Research & Analysis of Migration (CReAM), Department of Economics, University College London

Time of origin

  • 2016

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