Is It ‘Mohammed’ Or ‘Mo’? Over A Third Of BAME Employees Told To Adopt An ‘English Name’ At Work

Over a third of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) employees are told to adopt an ‘English name’ at work, a new report has suggested.

The research, commissioned by law firm Slater and Gordon, was conducted in the West and East Midlands, where 35% and 32% of BAME workers respectively were told to ‘adopt a western work name’ by their boss.

Furthermore, two in five BAME workers in the Midlands said they also had to change other aspects of their identity – including their appearance, what they ate and what religious and cultural practices they adhered to – in order to fit in at their place of work.

Slater and Gordon themselves commented “it is shocking that in 2019 employees are still being explicitly or implicitly pressurised by managers to change their names.”

Admittedly, they said “many were not asked outright by their boss to change their name to more western sounding names”, however “many said they felt pressurised into doing so to make it easier for their colleagues as they had difficultly pronouncing their real name.”

Whereas some may argue this method allows for easier communication and integration between workers of different backgrounds, the fact that some workers are being pressurised into shedding aspects of their own identity in order to accommodate to the supposed ‘values’ of employers is extremely worrying and, under the Equality Act 2010, could be considered as direct discrimination.

With Yorkshire being an incredibly diverse region, this news comes as a concern for the county. Although the research was conducted in the Midlands, it opens the question as to whether the same questionable practices may occur here as well.

A new phenomenon?

The Anglicisation of ‘ethnic-sounding’ names is not a new phenomenon, however. At America’s first federal immigration station – New York’s Ellis Island – it has been widely speculated that many of 12-13 million immigrants who arrived there between 1892 and 1954 had their names changed by officials to ones that were deemed to be more ‘westernised’. It is also possible, however, that names were changed due to spelling errors, illiteracy or the officials’ poor hearing.

The BBC also reported in 2016 that many BAME people had changed their names in an attempt to further their career prospects. They detailed the experiences of Wang Lai Ming, a man with a Chinese name and a master’s degree in business management from a UK university, who now goes by the name Terence King – his adopted English name has since landed him a role as a business lecturer in New Zealand.

The BBC also explain how American-Indian actor Kal Penn, born Kalpen Suresh Modhi, and politician Bobby Jindal – birth name Piyush Jindal – as well as a multitude of other BAME people in the public eye, have chosen to go by English names in their pursuit of success.

Closer to home, British distance runner Mo Farah captured the hearts of the nation at the 2012 London Olympics, but the shortening of his name from ‘Mohamed’ to ‘Mo’ is perhaps another reflection of this phenomenon. Liverpool FC’s Mo Salah – the English Premier League’s top goal scorer for 2017/18 and now a UEFA Champions League winner – was also born as Mohamed.

Slater and Gordon, speaking on their research, finally say the words that may be on the lips of many – “this research highlights that significant progress is needed with respect to inclusion in the workplace.”