announcer: funding for the kcet "fine cut" series is generously provided by the bridges larson foundation. ♪

[by cryi] 'onna: t first gt we receivfrom ouramily isur name. peue: but en, kama, or-- what--kamalar kamahl kalamalama--i don'know. denna: butot all nes arembracedy societ dr. rorio: plee, sir. ll me as would le to be called. at how i'mdentifie man:t doesn'really mter. . rosao: it maers to m de'onna:ames repsent our culturalrigins, story, and entity. trump: back hussn obama. rememberrush limugh uld alwa do thathe'd do "bark husseiobama." denna: more specificly, they fme who ware arand where we'rgoing. man: my name is funi amira

hati. man: my me is shui dominiquwilliams woman: my birth na is laguda shaueu jones. i legally changed my name in 2007 to naauhmocquaii richmond- jone but it'now naauocquaii binson-jes, and myickname mha for sht. de'onna: my name is de'onna young-stephens. origally de'onna, bui dropped the apostrophe and lowercased the capital "o" to be accepted. as i started to think about my name, all ofhese memies cameack of mfriends d peers gog throh simila perience i fe compell to reacout to few folks to see what they went through and how they handled what i would call "name shaming." and the more that i thought about this whole name shaming situation, the more i felt like every part of my identity had been attacked in some way, shape, or form.

my sn color d been aacked. the teure of my hairad been attaed. the ze of myips and thhs had bn attack. the wathat i tk d beenttacked,nd i jus stard to grotired. ids shoung] ♪ shiqta: i rember feeng kind olike an tcast for havi such wh, yoknow, wh most pele would consider stran or complited name naauhmocaii: wel growingp, i got a t of ridule. i got made fun of. i got cald nay name fulani: i don't even wt to tell y what th used to ca me. they useto call ... naauhmocquaii: kids used to call me iguana, laguanda the iguana.

lizard. just horrible. fulani: had no ia whathat wordeant. i was inlementy. i was ke, at, 7 yes old. and so went and askemy sist, and wh she tolme i wa-i just uldn't bieve it. ♪ shiquita; "oh, i'm sry. thought thatas your me." "no,ouid not. u did no ink thatas my me. u thoughit was fny and 's not ce." auhmocqui: i ft ostrized. i lt like an outst. i justelt out of pce sometime shiquitaby, likehigh schl, ople start making kes abt shaqui or--'cae it's-- my ne is in ke a coue of r lyrics.r names ke mi were ma fun of stand- comedieand stuflike that. woman: sif we re to gon date ande were tgo on th first da, alright, a my name was shaquitand i sa, isten, iike guys that makup rhymewith my me anlike tl me likwhat the likebout me the poe just fm at they e," whould y do? want to ar the pm right now.o. bacher numb 1, go.

man: squita, squita t your a in the r. [lghter] de'onna: frowhat ian recall, first native exrience with mname wasn elemenry school and taking an end-of-year test that came from the state. you had to write your name in these litt boxes andvery time i spelled my name, my tt was the only one returned and marked "invalid." man: we know from the exrimentalvidee athere is negati stigma tached t ving onef these ntempora ack name so tre are ls of diffent ys that rents sttegize about this. t at the ce of thi the qution sti remainss why e thesnames stmatized? and th how do rents th internale that wn they're thinkingf namingheir chdren?

anthen, thnext sge of it is, hodo childn themsees think out their very cializedames a do they ve a sen of embaassment abouthem wting to claim them nowanting be knowby that name bause of ereotypethat are tached tthose nas? naauhmocqaiii used tjoke arnd and s that my parentsossed thalphabet up a whatevefell dn, that's wt they ge me, the letters. that'shy i useto joke like to kind of ke easmy owpain. chelle: ve been th mocha foa year n. february4th de it a ar. naauhmquaii:irst day we offially saeach oth. chelle: was on naauocquaii: changedy name 2007, a it d take se adjustg, you know, causi mean i had caied the me laguaa for -some yes. when peoe were refung to ca me by my new na naauhmouaii, itind of likeid sometng to me d so in der r me to ve

true neentity, had push thname lagnda ouof my mi. when t mail camend michee saw thmail and itad the ne laguda on itshe autotically ked, "well, w is laguda?" ani loed at helike, "o go i have relive is nightmarall overgain." mielle: shwouldn'tell me r real ne. naauhmquaii: bth ne. chelle: rth nameani was--i w a little upset. i s like"you don care about . we supsed to kw erythingbout eacother. you wot even sre with your bir name?" i was rlly hurty th. nahmocquaii: it sted a f wes, to beonest, the ba and for, back and fort becausehe kept pushg for to pronounce it because e saw itn the par, but she uldn't pnounce i anthat, th righthere kin of like hashed se of theld exriences om when e achers cldn't prounce. so s didn't derstandhy it s, le, mentally dog sothing toe.

wh i final decidedo tell her,t's like it wakind of like, don't kn, kind olike a out--body exrience bause it'sike i ha't said at now, i litally hadot spoke that ne laguan in probly mo than 10rs. i prably hadot spokethat me. de'onn theay that changed the elling omy fir name, i lost little bit of mysf. the e" in denna comefrom myrandmoth deborahand the "o comes fm my gradaddy ron. my nampaid home to theand the onlyeason i anged itas tolease pele actuallyon't kno shiquita: when i first moved to atlanta, i just needed a job. so i moved the and tn like a week or o later, i s workinat nortrom. and whe i was ere thisideo went vir of is girl d

sharkeis gettingn a figh woma it wapostedarlier th week. a rl attacd by a fend nad sharkeha. the ternet qukly tooko the unue name, padying itith popur movies and mes. shaqta: i kn this gi knew my name s not shkeisha. d this d, she keptressing it a callinge that le, i was fuy. anshe was ite. i had to get mean about it. like sp calling me that. you sound racist. am: your ne is tob want to ar you s it. [gping] yourame is ty. u're gng to len to say yo name. let meear you y it. at's youname? kunta nte: kun. kuntkinte. [whicracks] shaqta: our lture wa litelly stried away om us en we re broht here. so ion--

i unrstand w people y to come uwith somhing uque it fes like it belongto them. tron: we kw from, y, the recos of black vetera of the vil war, many emancipated african-americans did change their names after the civil war, and so it's a really important process to understand. independent of a black naming paern is theay in which african-ericans re namin themlves aft emancipion and anging their nam after emanpation. ♪ funi: somy parts are bh from bmingham,labama. they mov to l.a.n the la seveies. th had onehild at e time sister ony. d at theime, my dad bame a muim. he was part the nion of isla so wn you're muslim,hey

want y to ex t slave ne anchangeour nameompletel maolm x: bause we' taught by the horable ejah muhaad walk ound witthese nas and therore he teachess that during slavery, the same slave master who owned us put his la name ons to denote that we werhis propty. so that wh you see a negro today whs namejohnson,f you go bk in hisistory, you'llind th he was ce-- his grdfather one of s refatherwas owneby a whi n who wanamed joson. his namis bunchhis grandfher was ned by a whe-- man: get theoint. maolm x: w named bch. man: wou you mintelling at youfather last me was? malcm x: my ther didt know s last ne. father t his la name om hisrandfath, and hi grandfher goit from s andfathe who gott fromhe slave ster. threal nam of our ople we destrod duri slery. man: w there a line,ny point in the genealogy of your family when you did have to use the last name? and ifo, what was it? lcolm the last name my forefathers wataken from thewhen they were bught to arica andade slav.

d then t name ofhe slavmaster w given, ich we resed. wrejecthat na today-- man: youean, youon't eve tell me what yr father's suppos last na was or fted last namwas? maolm x: i nev acknowlge it whatsver. fulani: mom andy dad bothhangedheir fir and st name. my dad'same was thony cox. my m's name s colietllan. so once my dad became muslim, they were trying to just give him a na, and myad was like, "nop leme do my rearch anfigure ouwhat i wt the na to be." he cnged hisame to rhid bahatiand theny motherher na is nassa bahatiand nassoma ans quee so bahati is swahili, and it means good fortune. luck, fortune, one who's to see like positive things. so, yeah. [childn shouti]

y: y want tolay game with me? de'onna: after i changed the spelling of my name, i wondered if i was weak. wonderedhy my acherselt the ed tembarrasme. i wonder if i waa follow. i wonded why ianted toit in. just wonded so my diffent thin. shuita: mywn dad, wh i start applyingor colles, told me that should ply as dinique insteaof as shuita, beuse heas worri that my applation wodn't btaken as seously wi a name ke mine. and just rember beinlike, hy did y name mehis then it waso hard a depressg to e point eri was li, mae it is name, a i tried toxperimt with iand see putting "s. wiiams" stead of "shaqua willia" or "sa insteaof shaqua would lp me bause sams like one ofhose nes whereou can b a girl--u can be girl or gu but it'just a rular me. sam.

won: i'm n abo to hire you if your na is wata l'andrea. it's jt not goa happen i'not goa hire y. [a talkingt once] [lghter] woma i would be su a beautifuking konquesha, i'll havyou guys know. trevon: e of the most famous studies, whave a rume study inhich i he a blacname and i send it out to apply for a job. and you ght say to yourself, "well, i see this black name, and i might think that this persons relavely unecated" orhis that and the oer. but remeer, e resu has a of the oer evince thatou wod need to justi whetherr not your asmptions abt this pson were te or not d what wfind ithat the are signifantly lower caback ras for ese blk names.t extes to oth areas awell. we knothat teaers haveower exctationsf black ildren o have tse stereypical black names. we alsknow thaprofesso are le willing to ta about aduate sool to sdents wh haveheselack nam. soeven whewe have her

eviden for whi the namen itself shoulnot give us aninformatn, we sti see t stigmating effect othe name shiqta: when first srted geing my ft into t industr i had-- lucky i knewomeone whoas trying tget meork on s. was alrey workinas an assistt editort the ti, bui wantedo work ithe mera dartment. so this y recommded me. nt my reme, and must ha foarded tohe peoplin the offi. and at i didt know w, the personooking amy resumin the offi didn't ke my na d was trng to prent me from gting hir becausee madell thesessumptio about my chacter bas on my ne. when i g there, was so weird cause th were sur friely to myace, andt was prented asust likeasual conversation "oh, wt's youriddle na?" ani toldim, and i dn't think ice abouit.

i to him and kept itoving. the xt thingyou know everyby on sets callg me minique. it was so frusating because i was like, did you really just ask for my middle name to changet, would ma everybo else ink my ne is domique insteaof shaquita? was walkg. so iust haveeen gog to the cameraruck. the personho stard it--buwe cross paths and theyaid, "he domique d i stopd. i said"my names aquita. do notall meominique jus because u're notk with m me. the rve of y." and i was anotr black rson. aftethat conversation with thaterson, it nev happened again,nd i remember tling him "it's ally sadhat you all peoe woulbe the o toome--comat me abt this to ce at me oumy name in thiway." he wn't tryi to be aully, buit was sll interlized rasm. hammad a: why yowant to say casss clay, when hard cose and evebody isalling mmuhammadli? now,hy you g to be t one, of alleople, w's color

to keesaying csius cla man: u..howardosell isot thone who's gonna ght yo i am. mummad aliyou're ming it real hard onourself w. y don't u keep [distinct thscoring gle? why n't you ll me name, man? ♪ man:o, my na is jon chstopher wells-- o first mes, but go byc. when u get moy, were you thinking about like perception in society, anything like that, or you know, because i'm gonna kind of be talking about some of the decisions made to give us a better opportunity, you know, even how how you even chose mother, so... with a name like jon christopher in terms of advancing in this world as an african-american man, i do believe it gives me an unseen head start.

i'vexperienc it in a siness wld applyg for leases wre peoplperceivee to be differenperson a they mt me in rson andhey e shocke peopleave madeemarks, u know, prably inaertent. about ing surpsed if y knowbased ony name. i'm acally in first g now, a this isrobay like the ybe 10thr 12th space that've trd to apply for. when was apping for other locaon, anher suit tually ithe samehopping ceer, when met thegent for the operty, looked like"oh, youe n christher." "yeah.'m jon cistoer." u know, d that hpens. you ow, i me, expect ito happe becaus you kno my namehen u look ait on per, based on wt wee used tseeing-- john did, johnhis,

at soundlike protypical wte male me. anlast timi checke am not ahite mal iquita: think i ved myse some trole by beg who i and thentic out who am wi my re name ony resume cause if they we going t discminate ainst somne becae of the name, i sure thathey had her uncocious bies again black pple or pele of lor. and ifomebody esn't wa to accepte or off a jobecause my me, that not a pce th i wt to be yway. ♪ tron: if y take soone from etern eure and yochange tir name from pavvsky to palmerr to pas, they ght be mh more likelyo pass asomeone o is of freh originr britis orig or somethers, o gean origi for exale.

but africanmerican who jacob andrews is ill going toe by phetype, like to assilate in the me degrethat somne who is whi will. think pple norealize at avoing th originaltigmatation wh ur name just se does no avoid thstigmatition whe yoshow up d are obrved by phenotype someone whos not ite. so the question is, you wan them to ow that u're bla orsian before ey meet u or not?nd that now, i ink, the new estion tt peop are adoing wh they conser names iquita: like my me. i don'know why cannot ally exess likehis deepeaning behi why i le my nam i ju do. [ks shouti] gi: come he, parke naauhmocaii: i ft like t day th i legal got my pers th i becama new peon and ke i kinof so of ed it,his old in. it felt good it actuay felt gd.

ev though took me while to tell her at my na from birth wa't naauhcquaii, once i elained ito her wt i wenthroughs a chil she unrstood a then shgets why i didn'tven wa to speak it sohat kindf made mfeel go that shwas undetanding and cepting the facthat i was a w person mielle: wh i thinkf mocha d naauocquaii, it bngs a sme to my ce 'cause ieally lo the nam and shlook lika auhmocqui. e look le a moch so ieally lo the nam i real love thname, and i see it mes her hpy when call h name. s smiles. so, th's all tt matter fulani: love tt my parts dn't givme a bas name. likeit's jusso beautul. like, really le-- i love my whole me, litelly. fulanimira bahi. like, mynitials e fab. and it's so dope. yeah, i love my name now. de'onna: i'm graduating soon, and i've decided to change the spelling of my first name on my

deee back its orinal fo. havet seenhe apostphe or capital " in 12 ars, a it nally fes like i home. my name is de'onna ung-stepns. ni to meetou. ♪ [waves crashing] ♪

tatic] asps] [wat running

[footsps approhing] n: linda linda: oh, mgod. what a you dng home? das here. man: know. nda: no,o, get out of here man: ian't. lia: yes, u can. here youo. go anhere. man: don't he ywhere ee to go. [scrn door ons] woman: [distinct i've misd you souch. buyou can't be her man: it'ok, mom. man: lk who ca home. [dog barng]

yo mother s worrieabout yo lo at me. dot ever drespect or leave at way ain. rain while blows] goo your rm. ♪

[footste] [dooslams] bject atterso floo [tmping anbumping] ♪ oor clos] [ftsteps aroaching woman:y, maria ways cking andleaning, ner havi any fun mari that's cause i'always cooking r you.

won: ah, wn are going toove out this ple? we canelp. ria: talto youbrother, t me. linda: ha, tia. a: hola.ow are y? lia: bien. a: thankfor yourelp. my hband wilbe gratefulhile i'mway. mm-h. lind w-wherere you gng? tia:'m goingo texas visiwith theamily. nda: i'dike to gto texas tia: o i'll beone for a while.exas is r from he. lind but i c help. maa: no, n besides need youhelp witrachel while i rk, and u need t get school. tia:'ll seyou when get ba. come on,et's get starte ♪ n: linda linda:i, tim. wh are you doinhere?

ti i w waitingor you. nda: andhy is th? tim: ias wondeng if i uld rrow youhistory ok. lia: how ce? tim: iost minend i didn'tead the sts, so. lind what abt me? tim: you're smart. you ed to sty. lind sure. y. ti thanks. linda:ust givet back tme at sool. tim:r i coulalways sng it your hoe. nda: no,chool isine. ti can i wk you me? nda: sur tim:ow's evething gog in e servans class? linda: is easy.

mom? ♪ [tin whistle blong] [childn laughi]

guel? [knockn door] a-are you ok? miguel: yeah. linda: w did youome backf u knewhat dad s gonna do tyou? guel: it hard outhere. linda: it's hard here, too. [door closes] i got to go. migu: linda. nda: yea

miguel: you eveleave, don't me back. rachel: nda, whaare you doin linda:ust studng. rachelcan you t me a gss ofater? linda: yh.

man:hy aren'you in b? linda:acl wantedome wate [lht switcclicks] ater runng] [click] chel c wait.

lind why do u mark t cards, dad man: tmake a ling and take care of r family. linda: a who taught you hoto do tt? you knowonce youark the card ey're ner the sa again. man: thas how i arn. lind graciaspapi. m gonna ke racheher wate

man: one me thing. no boys lowed toalk you ho or come andisit. compndes? nda: yesdad. maria: ma, time put tha ay and hp with tting yo sister ready for dinn. i'm tting a ate for guel. nda: ok,om. rael: ok, m! maria:h, and bthe way, i ed you thelp me th rachel tight. i goa late sft. ok? lia: mom? maa: mm-hm lind don't y hate tang plat up to muel? maa: i d't wanto get int is again. linda: whaabout rael? maria:he's too little.

[train while blowi] [knocking] linda: who is it? tim: it's tim. linda:im? tim, whaare you ing here yocan't beere. ti i just nted tsee yo and give you yr book back. lind thank y. m: canou talk r a seco? linda: o tim: didou have good dayt scol today linda: yh, uh, iwas fine

ehicle pses by] tim:t's a ni night. nda: tha you foroming overbut i'm t allowe to havany boyfends ove not li that! tim: iind of le you. i nt to--iant to talko you mo often. humping otsteps] n: what e you dog here? ti i just me to rern a book borrowe sir. man: ginside. yore not aowed to me over.

go home. tim: yessir. [lda breatng hard] lind rachel,achel,achel! rachelget up! ! go to guel's rm! go! [winchimes bwing] [gasping

[cing]

[lin sniffs] [rinng] ehicle pses by]

maa: nobodneeds tonow. [knock odoor]

tia: iot here soon as coul [wen talng indtinctly] don'worry, o i've go everythi set forer. how aryou doin lia:'m good. tia: youave everhing, hm mari ah, lovyou, mij linda:t's okmom. ria, cing: l's go. ♪

[phone ringing]

[pho beeping] woman: what was your mom like growg up? woman: she was not really present. woman: a to thisay, i don't ally know t specifi, exactl what hapned wh i was 8 i kn that i uld see r do things. i rememb knowinghat shwas rvous abt the poce findi ou

i knew at whateshe was doinwas agait the la it was never like a doubt of like what if she was wrongfully convicted and she's, in fact, innocent. it was athe courthouse, once my mom was sentenced, and i remember wanting to calm her down as an 8-year-old. like i remembered thinking i was now alone and i was going be king carof mysel but i somehow knew tt i was nna be ok about it. when the judge was gonna decide my placement into foster home, he couldn't pronounce my last namei rememb him not lookinat me, a i wondered if he knew i was 8 years old. i went thrgh when was 8, and i left when i was 18. so in those 10 years, probably did abou20 homes. what i do remember is that you would not get a lot of notice. you would just come home one day

and all your stuff would be like, literally in trash bags. yowere tolthat, "tight, we're gonna send you to another house." and that was the tghest part i just remember being scared, not owing ere i wagoing to slp. i was huny, i didt knowhat ki of od they re goingo have. so just rember erything being different, obviously, and it was not my home, but they were telling me that that was gonna be where i was gonna be staying for the foreseeable future. i could look back now and say, "oh, yeah, the foster part was probably a little bit more peaceful," even though it was another set of unknowns, but at least that fear of the illegal tivity w no long there.

itas hard figure t what ho mnt until became mothernd i hady own chd d i had establi a home. anso now he is whever you ar-ha ha!-nd wherer i feel le at pea. if i didn't become a mom, i would feel like something was missing, and i would have regretted it. i didn't know how to parent. like i didn't have--most people have a mom that they could emulate. so for me, it was a very real realization that i didn't know what i was doing, but also that i wanted to just give my daughter

everything that i didn't have. i don't know if i if i knew w to be ere emotionally for you, but i kn how to be there physically for you. when i was growing up, nobody knew where was. noby cared where i was. think i overcoensate bwanting kn every mute wheryou're atnd make re you'rok. if i wou get takenway from you ev once, iould nev do itgain, whever icost. i wouldn--it woun't be wth it. d so, fome when e kept doinit, and en even w i feelike she ill getslose to the le. anas a jud, i feelike i cat be part of that. and soor me, is easiero just stay ay. i ink that for theost part i ha made myeace witit. i do fe like i miss tt thg that iever had.

[pho ringing woman, on recording: ...reach you, and you were not available. jourdan: no, no, no. woman, on recording: if you have any questions on your current ...account, please don't hesitate to contact us at 866-607-6006. thank you for calling. good-bye. ♪ [crack]

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[sea gulls crying] [waves crashing]

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- [mike]: i started coming to this mall in 1982 when it opened. was... e place be. - y angee, this is mike, jasper mall. i have few emp space [upbeasynth p] ♪ [ambient music] - [announcer]: major funding for reel south was provided by: etv endowment, the national endowment for the arts, center for asian-american media,