How one young immigrant is reclaiming her identity by no longer anglicizing her name

For most of her life, Tanvi Bhatia has let people mispronounce her name.

For one thing, the 22-year-old says her first name doesn't sound like the way it's spelled, so introducing herself as "Tan-vee" rather than "Thun-vi" as it's supposed to be pronounced meant she didn't have to constantly teach, correct and negotiate with people over her name.

And another thing, Bhatia is an immigrant. She says allowing people to anglicize her name made it easier for her to fit in when she was growing up in Burnaby, B.C.

"When you're growing up, it's hard enough to be a good kid or a teenager and try to find belonging or try to fit in without also navigating what it means to be an immigrant and what it means to be racialized," she said.

"And so for me, going by Tan-vee in part was like a survival technique in that you go into those spaces, you leave parts of yourself behind because that way, you feel like it'll be easier to belong and easier to fit in. And then you won't feel as different or as much of an outsider." 

Trying to fit in

As a child and teenager, Bhatia didn't only try to fit in by making her name more palatable. She also asked her grandmother to pack her more westernized school lunches instead of Indian food so other kids wouldn't make fun of her. And when Bhatia and her family would go to weddings and stop at a Starbucks somewhere, she'd refuse to get out of the car wearing Indian clothes.  

But as she got older and started interacting more with others who had similar experiences as her, Bhatia's relationship with her identity and her name slowly began to change. 

About two years ago, while taking part in a media arts outreach program for immigrant and refugee youths, Bhatia says she introduced herself to someone by saying her first name properly.

"I had introduced myself, and then said, 'Oh yeah, by the way, my name is not actually pronounced Tan-vee, it's pronounced Thun-vi,'" she said.

"I just said it as a throwaway thing, and I hadn't asked people to call me that. But from then on, that person had just called me Thun-vi, and it wasn't a big deal. She didn't make a big fuss over it."

That experience made Bhatia realize that wanting people to pronounce her name properly is not asking for too much.

Reclaiming her identity

Bhatia says she's making a more conscious effort these days to say her name the way her family says it, and to teach and ask others to do the same.

"I'm relearning how to sort of take up space in that way — of being able to ask … people to learn how to say my name properly," she said. 

"If it's something that's important to me, then it's OK for me to put that slight burden on people to learn how to say it."

Bhatia is also reconnecting with her cultural roots by learning Indian recipes, making chai and watching Bollywood movies.

"Those are things that I've been doing more now, and part of that, I think, is reclaiming that aspect of my identity that for so long I didn't bring out in public, which is my name," she said.

This segment originally aired in September 2019.