"What's your name?": names, naming practices, and contextualized selves of young Korean American children.

Kim, Jinhee ; Lee, Kyunghwa

This study examined how young Korean American children and the adults around these children perform naming practices and what these practices mean to the children. As part of a large ethnographic study on Korean American children's peer culture in a heritage language school in the United States, data were collected by observing 11 prekindergarten children in a Korean language classroom and by interviewing nine guardians, including seven mothers and two grandmothers, and teachers during the 2007-2008 academic year. Our analysis showed that children's naming practices reflected their developing sense of self. The children negotiated adults' naming practices based on their shared meanings and norms in peer culture. The findings of this study shed light on the role of naming practices in children's self-concept and in their peer relations. The authors conclude with implications for the education of and research on young children from diverse cultural backgrounds.

Keywords: immigrant children, Korean American, naming practice, peer relation, self

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Naming a child is a practice that is often taken for granted in our lives. A child's name may be chosen by various people (e.g., parents, paternal or maternal family members, and community members) around the child and may reflect those individuals' tastes and values. As Bodenhorn and Bruck (2006) noted, however, names provide important information about an individual, such as kinship, ethnicity, religion, and gender. Naming is not an arbitrary labeling action (Rymes, 1996), but rather a "meaningful action ... situated in a [particular] context" (Miller & Goodnow, 1995, p. 6).

Scholars have noted that names and naming practices are closely connected to cultural values and beliefs (e.g., Alford, 1988; Goodenough, 1965; Lieberson & Bell, 1992; Rymes, 1996; Stahl, 1992; Su & Telles, 2007). For example, Alford (1988) examined White American mothers' name choices and attitudes toward naming in Oklahoma. The study findings revealed that boys tended to be given more kin names than girls. Alford explained that the naming practices for boys reflected the traditional son's roles as "perpetuators and symbols of family continuity and prestige" (p. 132). Similarly, Su and Telles (2007) examined the 1995 California birth records to find that Hispanic boys born in the United States were more likely than Hispanic girls to have English names that are translatable into Spanish. These researchers explained that U.S.-born Hispanic children, particularly boys, are situated in "a middle ground between assimilation and ethnic maintenance" (p. 1402), because their parents expect their sons to be assimilated into the host society less rapidly than their daughters. The Hispanic parents' expectation echoed the traditional son's roles identified by Alford.

Scholars also have claimed that names are deeply connected to individuals' identities (e.g., Alford, 1988; Dion, 1983; Goodenough, 1965). Goodenough (1965) claimed that people keep sharing things about the self and about the relationship between self and other through naming as a part of life's routine in every society. Alford (1988) also argued that societies provide children with their membership and social identities through naming practices: A named child has, in a sense, a social identity. To know a child's name, in a sense, is to know who that child is. And when the child is old enough to know his own name, he, in a sense, knows who he is. (p. 29)

Therefore, "a name is, after all, a part of one's self" (Dion, 1983, p. 251). It can be a vehicle for reinforcing a child's self projected by various others, depending on what they call him or her. If, for young children, naming can be the first step of constructing their sense of who they are, what happens when a child has different names used in different contexts? Many immigrant children face this dilemma. Aceto (2002) argued that multiple names influence "an imminent or latent identity ... correlated with one or more socially constructed components, such as language, kinship, social status, ethnicity, nationality, spirituality, or gender" (p. 582). In this sense, the use of different names to address a single child in different contexts can critically influence his or her developing sense of who he or she is.

Although studies on the relationships between names or naming practices and self or identity exist (e.g., Kim, 2007; Kroskrity, 1993; Thompson, 2006), little attention has been paid to how young children in general, and young immigrant children in particular, participate in naming practices, what those practices mean to them, and how their contextualized selves are manifested in naming practices. Therefore, the current study attempts to fill the gap in literature by examining how young Korean American children's developing sense of self is contextualized through naming practices.

NAMES, NAMING, AND SELF

Cultural psychologists (e.g., Miller & Goodnow, 1995; Shweder et al., 1998) argue that human beings perform the roles of receiver and creator of cultural practices and meanings. Cultural practices are not made up solely of an individual's participation, because individual participation is always tied up with the participation of others. These scholars also claim that the shared meaning and practices in a cultural community contribute to the construction of individual and group identifies. In this vein, naming practices are part of cultural practices reflecting beliefs and values in a community.

Shweder et al. (1998) defined self as "the mentalities and practices associated with being an 'I' (a subject, a person) in a particular community" (p. 896). From a cultural psychological perspective, the self is constructed through beliefs and practices shared in a cultural context. Similarly, Walsh (2002) stated that the self is "situated or contextualized" and is "formed not within but between, in interactions, in the system" (p. 103). According to Walsh, children's selves are constructed through interactions with others. Paralleling this notion, Shweder (1990) also noted that "the process of representing the others goes hand in hand with a process of portraying one's self itself as part of the process of representing the other" (p. 34). That is, self is in the process of "recognizing and defining oneself in relation to others" (Van Ausdale & Feagin, 2001, p. 91), and "the self emerges in the crucible of social relations, but those relations are embedded in cultural contexts and mediated by language and other semiotic systems" (Miller & Mangelsdorf, 2005, p. 51). These perspectives highlight the idea that the self is socially constructed (e.g., McLaughlin & Heath, 1993; Miller & Mangelsdorf, 2005; Varenne & McDermott, 1999; Walsh, 2002).

In relation to the notion of the socially constructed self, we argue that a child's name reflects social relations embedded in particular cultural contexts, and that naming practices influence a child's developing sense of self. In particular, the use of different names to address a single child in different contexts can critically influence his or her developing sense of who he or she is. Therefore, paying attention to naming practices is a useful way of understanding children's developing sense of self (e.g., Dion, 1983; Goodenough, 1965; Kim, 2007; Souto-Manning, 2007; Thompson, 2006).

METHOD

Research Site

The current study is part of a large ethnographic study on young Korean American children's peer culture at a Korean heritage school in a major city in the southeastern United States. The heritage school is affiliated with St. Clare Church (all names of places and participants are pseudonyms), a Korean Catholic church, and is located in the Peace community, which has a rapidly growing Korean immigrant population. The heritage language program operates for one hour per session (10:30-11:30 a.m.) each week and is supported primarily by student tuition and a small amount of church funds. The school administrators and teachers, all Korean immigrants, work as unpaid volunteers under the direction of a Korean priest. Throughout the year, the prekindergarten children learned Korean consonants and vowels by focusing on how to pronounce and write letters. Songs, storybooks, and free play rounded out the hour. Immediately after the Korean language classes, most children attended religious education classes (12:20-1:20 p.m.) in the church. The prekindergarten classroom had many flexible characteristics different from those of the formal school systems. For example, the children's attendance at the school fluctuated over the study period, because attending the heritage language school was not mandatory and because the class schedule was often lengthened or shortened to accommodate church events.

Participants

Eleven children (seven boys and four girls) ages 3 to 4 participated in the current study along with their guardians (i.e., mothers, grandmothers). (All 11 children were observed in the prekindergarten classroom. However, the first author was able to interview only nine guardians because the caregiver of two children, who are siblings, was not available for an interview.) The children born in the United States spoke English in their preschools or child care centers while attending the heritage school each Sunday to learn Korean. The guardians were immigrants, with U.S. residencies ranging from 5 to 32 years and varying levels of English proficiency. Most guardians were the children's mothers, who were in their thirties and forties, except for two grandmothers in their sixties. As school staff members, Mrs. Lim, the school coordinator, and Fr. Shin, the school director, were also interviewed. Although the school coordinator managed the curriculum, Fr. Shin made administrative decisions on such matters as school budgets and public relations. In addition, two prekindergarten teachers (Miss Cho and Miss Jang), who spoke Korean and English, were interviewed.

Data Collection

The participant children were selected based on "purposeful sampling" (Patton, 2002, p. 230) and "criterion sampling" (p. 238), which involved selecting young Korean American children outside formal school settings to study their peer culture. We chose the prekindergartners because this grade level would allow us to study the children's initial transition from home to school, as well as to observe how children interacted with each other in the classroom, with greater flexibility than the upper grade level. As a participant observer, the first author (hereafter, "I") collected data over a period of 9 months in the prekindergarten heritage language class by visiting the classroom weekly and spending one hour per visit (October 2007 to May 2008 for main data collection and September to October 2008 for follow-up data collection). I also had opportunities to observe the children at special events (e.g., children's birthday parties and the Christmas party) held outside the heritage language school.

I recorded the participant children's interactions with peers, teachers, and guardians at the prekindergarten classroom in field notes (Dewalt & Dewalt, 2002; Emerson, Fretz, & Shaw, 1995) and on video (Graue & Walsh, 1998). I observed children's interactions with peers and teachers in the classroom during playtime and structured instruction time for learning Korean letters. Children's interactions with their guardians were mainly observed when their guardians dropped off and picked up the children. Two digital audio-recorders were used as supplementary equipment for capturing children's spontaneous classroom interactions. I tried to place myself and the video camera in spots where I could see all of the children at once when playing or working as a group. I also moved the video camera when the children were engaged in free play or when they were moving about. Approximately 52 hours of video and 48 hours of audiorecordings were captured over the research period.

As a way of acquiring information from children (Graue & Walsh, 1998), individual children were frequently and informally asked about their verbal and nonverbal interactions. Regarding children's naming practices, the children also were asked what name they were called in different contexts and what name they preferred. Each caregiver, teacher, and administrator participated in one 60- to 80-minute semistructured interview (Patton, 2002) in spring 2008. Specifically, guardians were asked about how their child's name was chosen, what meanings that name holds, naming practices at home and in other contexts, and their own and their child's particular experiences in the United States regarding naming. I also had 15- to 25-minute follow-up interviews with six guardians and the teachers in fall 2008 to gather more information about naming practices. All these interviews with guardians and teachers were conducted individually, audiotaped, and transcribed, first in Korean and later selectively translated into English. Several artifacts (e.g., the children's work, weekly newsletters for parents) available in the heritage school also were collected as part of data collection.

Data Analysis

Initial analysis began with reading the field notes and transcripts of video- and audio-recordings. Utilizing inductive analysis strategies rooted in grounded theory (Charmaz, 2000; Emerson et al., 1995; Strauss & Corbin, 1998), we read and reread field notes and transcripts and coded them line-by-line to identify patterns, themes, and categories. In coding the data, we particularly focused on who called on whom and what name was used among peers and between the children and the adults. For data triangulation, we also paid attention to names used by guardians and teachers recorded in the interview transcripts, as well as names recorded in the field notes.

FINDINGS

Our data analysis revealed that the beliefs and values of Korean immigrant guardians were embedded in their naming practices. The participant children were addressed by different names in different contexts, aware of their contextualized selves, and developed their senses of self according to adults' and peers' naming practices. In what follows, we discuss each of these themes in detail.

Guardians' Values and Beliefs Reflected in Korean American Children's Names

Interviews with the guardians provided insights into how their Korean cultural values and beliefs influenced the selection of their child's name, and how the name selection reflected their expectations for their child's future life. Regarding the children's Korean names, most guardians revealed their belief that their child would grow into the meaning of his or her Korean name. For example, in the transcript provided below (all Korean words spoken by the participants in the study were translated into English and are presented in italics), Seonil's mother shared how the selection of her son's Korean and English names reflected her values and expectations.

The ordinary name Steve has good meanings--bright and smart. From my perspective, there should be something vitally embedded in names. I believe that a child grows into his name. So, I think it's really important to give a child the name that specifically suits him or her For this reason, I chose [the English] name Steve. [The Korean name] Seonil came with a similar meaning.... The meaning of Seonil is to become an outstanding scholar Seen means "becoming accomplished" and Il means "a scholar." So, I expect that he will become an academically accomplished person. (Interview, 2/19/2008)

All of the participant children had Korean and English names, and most children had baptismal names as presented in Table 1.

Table 1 shows that except for two children who did not have baptismal names, five children had the same English names as their baptismal names, and four children had baptismal names different from their English names. As a result, all participant children in the current study had at least two names (e.g., English name, Korean name, and/or religious name). Given that all of the guardians in the current study were Catholic parishioners, choosing a name for their child that reflects their religion seemed natural. Lieberson (2000) argued that the names of individuals from different racial/ethnic groups in the United States often reflect their degree of assimilation into the mainstream culture. He claimed that immigrants tend to avoid selecting names that sound alien to people of the dominant cultural group. The Korean immigrant guardians in the current study seemed to share this concern and tended to give their American-born children English names, including biblical names.

By giving English and Korean names, the guardians revealed their desire to help their child's smooth adjustment to the host society while maintaining the bond with the ethnic community. Alford (1988) asserted that a society provides a child with its membership and social identity through naming practices. The guardians in this study regarded their child's Korean and English names as symbols of membership in both the ethnic community and the host society. The following interview transcript with Hyonmin's mother, who had lived in the United States for 6 years since her marriage, illustrates this perspective:

It is for [my son] to prevent him from forgetting both names. For example, Simon is the name that he will keep using for living [in the host society], while Hyonmin is not likely to be used by others except for family members at home. Hyonmin is used as his middle name.... There is no possibility that we're going back to Korea, because my husband has lived as a U.S. citizen for a long time. So, [having] an English name in this society is important in that sense. We're not leaving the Korean community here [in the host society], either. (Interview, 9/21/2008)

By keeping an English and Korean name, Hyonmin's mother expected her son, a 4-year-old boy, to maintain a balanced relationship with the ethnic community and the host society.

Different Names in Different Contexts

The children in the current study were called by different names in different contexts. In formal school settings, they were called by their English names; at home and in the Korean heritage language school, however, they were addressed using their Korean and/or English names. The use of different names in different contexts provided insight into how the children develop "situated or contextualized selves" (Walsh, 2002, p. 103).

Interviews with the guardians revealed that the children initially experienced some confusion about their different names. For example, Hyonmin's mother articulated how her son was addressed differently outside of home, and how different naming practices were confusing to Hyonmin as a young child:

At home, he is mainly called Hyonmin. To American people, Simon; and to Korean people, Hyonmin. Last year [when he was 3 years old], he didn't seem to be able to distinguish between different names. When the daycare teacher called him Simon, the teacher told me he did not know his name. But, according to the teacher, one to two months later he started to know his English name. When she called him Simon [at the beginning], I guess he did not recognize who Simon was. (Interview, 2/19/2008)

As shown in the above transcript, understanding different naming practices used in different contexts is challenging for a preschooler. This challenge was also observable in the heritage language school. The following field notes illustrate how some children did not promptly recognize their Korean names:

This is the third class since school started this fall. The children are all sitting at tables to begin today's lesson. The lead teacher, Miss Cho, calls the class roll in Korean and asks the children to answer "Yes" in Korean. However, the children do not immediately respond to their Korean names. Some respond to the teacher when she switches their Korean names to English names. The teacher calls "Junsung," but Junsung does not respond. Instead, he looks at his classmates. The teacher switches to Junsung's English name, Paul, and he immediately answers "Yes" in Korean. (Field notes, 11/04/2007)

Like Hyonmin in his English child care center as described in his mother's interview, several children, including Junsung, were not familiar with their Korean names. Although we expected that these children would become familiar with both their names over time, some children still had difficulty recognizing and responding to their Korean names at the heritage language school, even several weeks after the second semester started in spring 2008. The following field notes illuminate one such moment:

Seven children are sitting at their tables and ready for the day's lesson. The lead teacher, Miss Cho, distributes worksheets that ask the children to write a Korean letter and find a corresponding picture or word. Miss Jang, the assistant teacher, stands by Miss Cho. The children's Korean names have been already written on the worksheets by the teacher. Distributing the worksheets, Miss Cho calls each child's Korean name.

Miss Cho: OK. Where is Park, Junsung? Park, Junsung?

Junsung: (Junsung does not respond, but looks around.)

Miss Cho: Where is Junsung? (She switches to Junsung's English name, Paul, and asks another child.) Seonil, where is Paul? (While Seonil looks around, Junsung now smiles and looks at the teacher.)

Miss Cho: (Still looking around.) Paul? I can't find Junsung. Junsung. (She's approaching

Junsung: Paul, are you Junsung?

Junsung: (Receiving his worksheet and smiling.) Yes.

Miss Cho: Min, Boyong. Where is Boyong?

Miss Jang: Please raise your hand.

Miss Cho: (To Boyong.) Where is Boyong? Boyong. Are you Boyong?

Boyong: (Boyong does not respond to the teacher's call and just looks at the table.)

Miss Cho: (Giving up calling Boyong and handing out Boyong's worksheet.) Here it is. (Field notes/Video-recording transcripts, 2/10/2008)

In this episode, Junsung did not respond to the teacher until she switched to his English name, Paul. Only after she posed a probing question (i.e., "Paul, are you Junsung?") did Junsung respond to his Korean name. In addition, the children in this class tended to have more difficulties recognizing their peers' Korean names than their English names, as illustrated in the following incidents observed on the same day:

Miss Cho: Yongjae. Choi, Yongjae.

Yongjae: (Yongjae does not respond.)

Miss Cho: Where is Yongjae? (She then asks Soojung by first calling her English name.) Marian[na] ... (and then immediately changing to Marianna's Korean name.) No. Soojung, where is Yongjae?

Soojung: (Soojung doesn't seem to know who Yongjae is and just looks at the teacher.)

Miss Cho: (She asks Seonil.) Seonil, can you let me know where Yongjae is?

Seonil: (Seonil looks around and shakes his head, indicating "no.")

Miss Cho: (Switching to Yongjae's English name.) Jacob? (Yongjae smiles at the teacher. Then she hands a worksheet to Yongjae.) Here it is, Yongjae.

Miss Cho: Where's Jessica?

Seonil: (Although the lead teacher didn't ask Seonil, he immediately points to Jessica.)

Jessica: (Jessica raises her hand and receives a worksheet.)

Miss Cho: (After giving worksheets to Seonil and Myungwoo, the two boys who recognized their Korean names promptly, she calls the last child's name.) Soojung.

Seonil: (Pitching his voice a little high as if he is not familiar with this name.) Soojung? (Field notes/Video-recording transcripts, 2/10/2008)

These field notes indicate that the children had great difficulty in recognizing their own and their peers' Korean names. For example, when the teacher asked Soojung and Seonil where Yongjae was, the children could not answer. When the teacher called Jessica, Seonil was able to immediately point to her once again. When Seonil heard Soojung's name, however, he demonstrated his unfamiliarity with this Korean name by acting as if he were heating it for the first time.

The difficulty many of these children had with Korean names may well be related to their daily lives. The children attended the heritage language school only on Sundays, whereas all attended English-speaking institutions during the weekdays. Therefore, they might have had fewer opportunities to become familiar with and use their own and their heritage language school peers' Korean names. Although the children did not attend the same preschool or kindergarten on the weekdays, the fact that they spent more time in English-speaking settings, where all were using their English names, seemed to influence the children's familiarity with their own and their peers' English names. For some children, English names seemed to be frequently used at home as well. For example, although Junsung's mother mentioned that her son was addressed as Junsung and Paul at home, he was called by his English name more often than his Korean name during a Christmas party at his house. In addition, most parishioners at the church more frequently used his English name and referred to his mother as "Paul's mother." Junsung had limited proficiency in Korean and was more familiar with English. He had attended an English-speaking child care center since he was age 2 1/2. He learned English before he could speak Korean fluently because "he was in a day care center all day" (Interview with Junsung's mother, 3/30/2008). Junsung's parents have lived in the United States for more than 20 years and communicated with him more in English than in Korean at home. Junsung's mother reported that Junsung's name is difficult for English speakers to pronounce, and that even Junsung feels that way. This discomfort was observed in the following incident.

It is free play time in the prekindergarten classroom of the heritage language school. I approach Junsung, who is sitting at a table where the lead teacher is reading a story to Boyong and Wonkyu.

The researcher: (To Junsung.) What's your name?

Junsung: Paul.

The researcher: Paul. That's your name.

Junsung: Yeah.

The researcher: Do you have another name?

Junsung: (A few seconds later.) Ye, Yeah.

The researcher: What's that?

Junsung: Huh, Paul Park.

The researcher: Paul Park. Do you have another name?

Junsung: No. Nope.

The researcher: What about Junsung?

Junsung: OK. I have that name.

The researcher: That name. Why do people call you Junsung?

Junsung: Because they like to call the name. (Turning his head toward another side.) I'm trying to [unintelligible]. (He puts his head on his arm.) (Field notes/Audio-recording transcripts, 2/24/08)

In this excerpt, Junsung did not mention his Korean name until I brought it up. Even then, he referred to his Korean name as "that name" instead of pronouncing it. He revealed his discomfort with his Korean name by avoiding further conversation about it.

The children's difficulty with their Korean names also revealed that naming practices of immigrant children are more complicated than the assumed dichotomous practices of ethnic names at home and English names outside the home context. Instead, the children's names used at home were chosen flexibly by the caregiver, based on his or her individual preferences (e.g., the caregiver's experience in his or her life in the host society, the caregiver's proficiency in English or Korean), as illustrated in Junsung's case. In some cases, the children were addressed according to family composition (e.g., using an English name at home to avoid confusion between siblings with similar Korean names). For example, Joohee's (Michelle's) family members called her either Joohee or Michelle, based on their level of language fluency. Except for Joohee's mother, most of Joohee's family members rarely spoke Korean. Although Joohee's mother tended to call her daughter by her Korean name, Joohee was addressed as Michelle by her father and by other family members (e.g., White aunts): "I call her Joohee. Other family members call her Michelle. ... She also speaks to me in Korean. Other family members speak to her in English. As time goes by, she's getting to know both names" (Interview with Joohee's mother, 3/22/2008). Although all participant children had Korean names, not all children were addressed by their Korean names at home.

Contextualized Selves Through Naming Practices

Most children in the current study demonstrated that their senses of self were linked to the names they used for themselves and the names others called them. Seonil's case described below is a good example of how a child followed adults' naming practices and how these practices influenced his self-representation. In Seonil's case, the adults, including his guardians, teachers, and other parishioners, addressed him as Seonil more often than Steve, although his peers called him by both names. Seonil also had a more distinctive bicultural sense of self in relation to his names than other participant children did:

When I ask about his name, Seonil says, "In Korean, Seonil is Seonil. In English, it is Steve." I ask him again, "Are Seonil and Steve the same person?" He answers, "Yes." I probe further, "Which name do you prefer to be called?" He replies, "Seonil and Steve." (Field notes, 2/17/2008)

The interview with Seonil's mother revealed that she had a clearer idea about how she wanted Seonil to develop a Korean American identity than other guardians did. The following transcript shows how a caregiver's beliefs and values were reflected in her naming practice for her child, and how this practice influenced her child's sense of self.

At an American school, he is just Steve without Seonil. But in other places, he introduces himself as "Seonil and Steve." ... He is neither a Korean nor an American because he is in between ... so I clearly and always say to him, "You're in the middle." ... I always tell him that he is a Korean American.... So.... we always call him, "Seonil and Steve. '" Seonil first comes, and then Steve follows. (Interview, 2/19/2008)

Seonil's mother had clear ideas about her son's identity as a Korean American and wanted to communicate them through her naming practice for her son. This practice persuaded Seonil to have one foot in each culture; thus, he introduced himself as "Seonil and Steve." Seonil's case shows how a child learns and develops the sense of who he is by being addressed differently by different people and by internalizing these naming practices. This case supports the idea of the socially constructed self (Miller & Mangelsdorf, 2005; Shweder, 1990; Walsh, 2002), discussed earlier.

Paying attention to the children's name writing was another way to understand their developing sense of self. Bloodgood (1999) reported that children's name writing often becomes the first step in exploring their written language, and that children's name writing can be an avenue for self-representation. Although few children were able to write their full names in English, the participant children tended to represent their written names with English letters rather than Korean characters on worksheets. Although their writing ability varied, it was clear that the children, called by different names in different contexts, experienced another dissonance between their spoken and written names. In the heritage school, the teachers often provided the children with worksheets on which they wrote the children's Korean names, either before or after the children finished their work, as illustrated in the following field notes:

When Jessica finishes her worksheet, she goes to the teacher. The lead teacher, Miss Cho, is about to write Jessica's name on her worksheet. Jessica says to Miss Cho,

Jessica: Jessi ... Joo[hee] ... wait, wait, wait! Jessica. I don't know how to spell it. (after a few seconds) No. No. Sophia.

Teacher: OK. I put all your names. (Field notes, 3/02/2008)

Jessica always wrote her English name on her worksheets because she could not write Korean characters well. Jessica's father immigrated when he was a child and rarely spoke Korean. Jessica communicated with her family in English. Jessica's mother is White, but Jessica's parents divorced when she was age 1. Since then, Jessica's grandmother has lived with Jessica and her father and taken care of Jessica. Jessica's father and grandmother rarely called Jessica by her Korean name, even at the heritage school. The above field notes revealed that Jessica was aware of herself as Joohee (Korean name), Jessica (English name), and Sophia (baptismal name), even though, verbally, she frequently represented herself as Jessica and occasionally as Joohee in front of her peers. One week after the incident described above, the teacher continued to write Jessica's Korean, English, and baptismal names on a worksheet, saying, "Here. Joohee-Jessica-Sophia" (Field notes, 3/09/2008). As scholars have discussed how multiple names influence the construction and negotiation of one's identity (e.g., Aceto, 2002; Kim, 2007; Thompson, 2006), speaking and writing different names may well influence the development of multiple selves for a child like Jessica.

By representing themselves through different names, the children revealed the awareness of their different positions in different contexts. The children also understood that they needed to adjust their selves according to those contexts. Thus, learning to use different names as a mode of self-representation seems to promote these Korean American children's adjustment and readjustment to bilingual/bicultural contexts, as well as their exploration and development of multiple situated selves.

Naming Practices in Peer Relations

Children derive their sociocultural knowledge, values, and beliefs from the adult world. Yet they do not passively accept what they learn from adults as they construct their own meanings and practices with their peers (Corsaro, 1985, 1997). By focusing on young children's sense of agency, as advocated by many researchers (e.g., Corsaro, 1992, 1997; Corsaro & Eder, 1990; Gaskins, Miller, & Corsaro, 1992; Shweder et al., 1998), we claim that children adopt adult naming practices, try to make sense of these practices according to their shared meanings, and re-create their own naming practices with their peers.

Adopting adults' naming practices. Data of the current study revealed some regular patterns of naming practices by adults and children. Not surprisingly, most children tended to address their peers by using the same names that adults (e.g., guardians, teachers, and other adults) used. If adults called a child a Korean name, for example, his or her peers tended to use the Korean name. If adults used Korean and English names to refer to a child, the child's peers also tended to call him or her by both names. Clearly, adults' naming practices influenced the children's naming practices in peer relations. For example, Joohee's mother used Joohee's Korean name at home and at the heritage language school. The teachers never called Joohee by her English name. Interestingly, throughout the school year, none of her peers in the heritage school ever mentioned Joohee's English name, Michelle. She was called Joohee even by Jessica, a biracial child who had the same Korean name as Joohee, but rarely called herself this Korean name. Instead of using 'T' as the subject, Joohee used her Korean name when interacting with other children in the heritage language classroom. When she wanted to join an activity, for example, she always said, "Joohee wants" or "Joohee will do."

Negotiating adults' naming practices. Although adults' naming practices had a significant impact on the children's naming practices, the participant children did not always passively follow adults' practices. Instead, they negotiated adults' practices and constructed their own naming practices based on the meanings and norms shared with peers.

This negotiation process reflected the children's sensitivity to differences in their peers' language use and language proficiency. The children's naming practices for Jessica and Joohee (Michelle) are prime examples. As noted earlier, the children never used Jessica's Korean name or Joohee's (Michelle's) English name, although the two girls had the same Korean name. At times, Jessica introduced herself to her peers by using both her Korean and English names, although adults, including teachers and parishioners at the church, called her Jessica most of the time. Occasionally, the teachers also called Jessica by her Korean name, Joohee, in front of her peers. However, Jessica's Korean name was never mentioned in the children's peer relations, except for a situation when some children playfully mimicked what their teacher said. Unlike Jessica, Joohee (Michelle) always called herself Joohee and was addressed as such by her peers. The children in this study distinguished between these two girls by calling them different names--one by her Korean name, the other by her English name. In terms of language use and proficiency, Joohee (Michelle) was more fluent in Korean and tended to use a mix of Korean and English, compared to Jessica, who spoke only English, except for a few Korean words, such as the one for "teacher." The children tended to talk to Joohee (Michelle) in Korean, while interacting with Jessica in English. I also noticed that the adults, including the teachers and me, tended to speak Korean with Joohee (Michelle), while speaking English with Jessica. The children's awareness of these different interaction patterns and different languages used in the interactions seemed to contribute to their naming practices.

In addition, the children's distinction between the two girls seemed to reveal their sensitivity to differences in their peers' physical appearance. Although Jessica, like many Korean American children, had black hair and black eyes, her biracial genetics gave her subtly different features that distinguished her from other children whose parents were both Korean. As Nesdale, Durkin, Maass, and Griffiths (2004) noted, very young children can "differentiate among people based on physical cues (e.g., skin color)" (p. 238); thus, Jessica's physical appearance might have influenced her peers' perceptions about her and their naming practice for her.

In fact, an examination of who frequently called whom and by what name revealed the children's peer relations and the dominant language used in their peer interactions. For example, the teachers more frequently called Kyuwon, a boy who has limited proficiency in Korean and always spoke to peers in English, by his Korean name rather than his English name, Eric. However, none of his peers used his Korean name. Considering that Kyuwon's father and grandmother called him Eric even at the heritage language school, his case was unique in that the teachers did not follow the guardians' naming practices. Regardless of the differences between the teachers and guardians, the children called him Eric because they might have noticed Kyuwon's language use and proficiency. These findings indicate that the preferred name used in the children's interactions was clearly linked to the dominant language used in their peer relations.

The children's naming practices also reflected their peer relationships and friendship. Much as researchers (e.g., Feng, Foo, Krestschmer, Prendeville, & Elgas, 2004; Meyer, Klein, & Genishi, 1994) found that a shared language contributes to inclusion and exclusion in children's peer relations, the children in the current study showed the power of a shared language in their peer relations in the heritage language classroom. For example, those children with limited proficiency in Korean (e.g., Jessica and Kyuwon) developed a peer group and called each other by their English names, while children speaking in a mix of Korean and English (e.g., Hyonmin, Joohee, and Seonil) interacted with each other by using their Korean and/or English names. In the case of Hyonmin, although the teachers frequently called him by his Korean name, only a handful of children called him Hyonmin. The children who used Hyonmin's Korean name were Junsung, Myungwoo, and Seonil. These four boys formed a close friendship, frequently interacting and playing with each other. Even Junsung, who had difficulty pronouncing his own Korean name, used the other three boys' Korean names in this peer group. Except for these boys, however, Junsung never called other children by their Korean names.

The data also indicated that some children who were rarely addressed by their peers, regardless of their having a Korean name or an English name, had few interactions with their peers. For example, Boyong and Wonkyu, as siblings, created their own dyad and rarely interacted or played with other children in the heritage language class. Interestingly, the teachers also rarely called on these two isolated children. In contrast, the data revealed that the teachers and the children most frequently called and spoke with Jessica, who was one of the most popular children in the classroom. This is consistent with Gest, Graham-Bermann, and Hartup's (2001) argument that infrequently named children seem to be less or rarely involved in a socially salient group.

DISCUSSION

The current study attempted to unpack part of the complex processes of children's developing senses of self by focusing on young Korean American children's naming practices. The children in the current study had English and Korean names and introduced themselves differently in different contexts. Understanding the need to use their English names in their formal school might be an indication to these children that they are entering a cultural community that promotes practices and values different from those of theft ethnic community, and where a change in the presentation of who they are might make sense. By sharing various names with which they are addressed by adults and peers in different contexts, the young Korean American children may well develop an understanding of their and their peers' multiple and "contextualized selves" (Walsh, 2002, p. 103).

The fact that all children in the current study have English and Korean names reflects their guardians' dual expectations: they want their child to have a comfortable and successful life in the host society, while still being able to maintain his or her Korean identity. As in Souto-Manning's (2007) study, in which a Hispanic immigrant mother gave her son an English name to allow him to assimilate more successfully into American schools, the Korean immigrant guardians in the current study thought and hoped that giving their child an English name would help his or her adjustment to the host society.

The findings of the current study also reveal that these children's naming practices are not as clear-cut as using Korean names at home and English names at school. Instead, the children learned to be flexible about their names at home, based on their guardians' perceptions of and experiences in the host society, their guardians' proficiency in English or Korean, and their family composition (e.g., a child being addressed by his English name at home, due to a family member from a different cultural group). In addition, many children's names in the current study reflect their guardian's religion (e.g., Catholic) and traditional Korean values (e.g., emphasis on education and scholarly achievement). Therefore, these young Korean American children learn through naming practices to be fluid in moving between various contexts by developing multiple selves responsive to different expectations, beliefs, and values.

The guardians' desires and expectations also might reflect the interdependent self valued in many East Asian cultures (Markus & Kitayama, 1991; Shweder et al., 1998). Shweder et al. (1998) argued that the notion of the self being "context-based" is prevalent in many East Asian cultural contexts, which valorize the interdependent self characterized as being "relational, flexible, malleable, responsive to others' expectations, preferences, and feelings; similar to others and concerned with fitting in" (p. 901). In relation to the East Asian construal of the interdependent self, giving their child an English name might mean to these Korean immigrant guardians that they help their child blend in more readily instead of standing out, due to a Korean name perceived as unfamiliar and difficult to pronounce by non-Korean speakers. Indeed, the guardians in the current study talked about helping their child to be able to interact with people in the host society without any impediments (e.g., introducing their Korean name) as the primary reason for giving their child an English name. This explanation reflects the Korean immigrant guardians' desire to help their child fit into the host society.

In the current study, adults' naming practices had a significant impact on the children's naming practices, but the children did not passively follow adults' practices, as shown in the cases of Jessica, Joohee (Michelle), and Kyuwon. The findings of the current study uncover how young children construct their own naming practices based on their shared understandings and norms in peer culture (e.g., using an English name for a peer who is a fluent English speaker and whose physical appearance is different from other Korean children). The naming practices used by the Korean American children to address their peers echo Corsaro's (1997) idea of "interpretive reproduction" (p. 18). Corsaro documented how children contribute to the production and reproduction of cultural practices by negotiating their participation in adult-child routines and by creating their own meanings and routines in their peer culture. He argued that children not only adopt adults' practices, but also create their own practices that might, in turn, influence the adults' practices. The case of Jessica, a biracial child, is a good example of how adults' and children's naming practices are not always unidirectional, but often mutually constitutive.

Finally, the current study shows how a careful examination of children's naming practices reveals friendship and peer-group structure in children's peer relations. By paying attention to who called on whom and how, we were unexpectedly able to identify core and dominant peer groups, as well as marginalized children. What is particularly interesting and significant in these unforeseen findings is the fact that some isolated children were rarely addressed by their peers and their teachers, as shown in the cases of Boyong and Wonkyu. In contrast, whether her name is English or Korean, a popular child like Jessica tended to receive the most attention and the largest amount of peers' and teachers' naming.

CONCLUSIONS

The current study approaches naming as a significant cultural practice influencing young children's developing sense of self. We argue that paying careful attention to children's and their guardians' naming practices can provide educators with invaluable insights into what beliefs and values are promoted in each family, as well as how the children make sense of and negotiate different, and at times conflicting, perceptions and expectations of who they are and who they should be.

Instead of taking a child's name for granted, we suggest that the teacher initiate conversation around whether the child has different names, what names are preferred in different contexts (e.g., home and school) and why, what meanings each name has, and so on. A project on children's (and their families') names in the classroom at the beginning of the school year will help the teacher and the children in the class learn about each other and realize how a person's name can reflect the history and culture of his or her family. We believe that the teacher's careful attention to each child's name is critical to building a supportive environment, particularly for children from immigrant families and for children adopted by parents from different racial and cultural backgrounds who are likely to experience different naming practices and may go through a process of identity negotiation.

The current study also sheds light on the importance of the teacher's systematic observation of children's peer relations and of her own interaction with each child. From the perspective that self is socially constructed (e.g., Miller & Mangelsdorf, 2005; Walsh, 2002), peers and the teacher become significant others for children's developing sense of self. Through the careful observation of children's naming practices in peer relations, the teacher may gain insights into how children develop their senses of self. This observation also will help the teacher identify dominant peer groups and marginalized ones, and consciously design educational activities expanding and deepening his or her own interactions with each child in the classroom. Based on this observation, the teacher also will be able to encourage the classroom children to interact with diverse peers.

We hope that the current study can provide researchers interested in studying young children with useful insights into which research methods might help us understand young children's peer culture and their development of self. Directly asking 3- to 5-year-old children to talk about their sense of self helps neither the children nor researchers. We argue that paying attention to children's naming practices provides indirect and yet rich contexts for researchers to record the concrete particulars that are often neglected in everyday interactions but are critical to understanding young children's development of self in culture. Providing useful tips for researchers working with young children, Graue and Walsh (1998) argued: "Concrete particulars are the only way to the meaning that kids are constructing in their everyday situated actions, that is, actions 'situated in a cultural setting, and in the mutually interacting intentional states of the participants"' (p. 105). Traditionally, researchers studying children's peer relations have used sociometric methods, based on likeability or nomination scales, by asking children who their favorite friends are or who they want to play with, and by relying on the validity of children's self-report. These methods, however, are limited in studying young children's peer culture and often problematic, because peer rating or peer nomination, particularly the use of negative peer nomination (e.g., who would you least like to play with?), can provoke ethical issues (Chan & Mpofu, 2001). We encourage researchers to pay attention to such mundane practices as naming a child when trying to understand the meanings, such as who I am, that young children construct through their everyday situated actions.

DOI: 10.1080/02568543.2011.579854

Submitted January 11, 2010; accepted December 3, 2010.

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Jinhee Kim

Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Kyunghwa Lee

The University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia

Address correspondence to Jinhee Kim, Department of Instruction and Leadership in Education, Duquesne University, 102D Canevin Hall, 600 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15282. E-mail: kimj3@duq.edu TABLE 1 Different Names of Participant Children Korean Full English First Biblical Gender Birthday Name Name First Name Boy December-02 Kyuwon Oh Eric Joshua May-03 Junsung Park Paul Paul July-03 Yongjae Choi Jacob Jacob September-03 Hyonmin Cho Simon Simon May-04 Myungwoo Shon Peter Peter May-04 Seonil Jang Steve Emanuel October-04 Wonkyu Min Mike -- Girl February-03 Joohee Lee Jessica Sophia June-03 Boyong Min Emily -- July-03 Soojung Kim Marianna Marianna April-04 Joohee Lee Michelle Agnes