Ifrah Salih and Jacqui A Brewster, Senior Lecturers in the College of Health Wellbeing and Life Sciences (HWLS) presented their own session "Understanding the Importance of Each Other's Names: practical exercise" at the University of Warwick - Say My Name Symposium on 18th February 2022.

It's important to use someone's full name and not to ask racially minoritised people to shorten their name or provide a nick name. Instead, we want people to learn how to pronounce the names of racially minoritised individuals. Ifrah and Jacqui demonstrated the exercise where they share the meaning behind their names, the cultural context and the importance of using our fill name. 

The University of Warwick said "thanks yet again for such a fantastic presentation. Just so you can track impact, I am introducing your activity as a welcome week activity for staff to use at Warwick this coming academic year". 

The importance of Say My Name

Our names are important to us, and our names can tell us a good deal about who we are and our background. Say My Name has been created to support student belonging at our institution. Names have meanings in terms of our personal history, our families, our cultural heritage, and our place in the world. Racially minoritised individuals often adapt or change their name to ‘fit in’ or due to their name being mispronounced. Saying people’s names are often mispronounced, shortened, or avoided when in fact our names are important!

Cultural awareness is important in pronouncing names. By being culturally competent means that we are aware and accepting of cultural differences/different cultural experiences including our own cultural values. It helps us recognise that people have different ways of communicating, behaving, interpreting and problem-solving.

Most people have the tendency to use their own way of life as a standard for judging others; and indicates the belief to individuals that their race, culture, society, etc., are superior to all others or the acceptable standard way of behaving. This is known as ethnocentrism Our brain automatically tells us that we are safe with people who look, think, and act similar to us. The brain uses short-cuts to navigate an incredible amount of information which leads us to make snap decisions about who we prefer and who we avoid. These automatic preferences and prejudices are what we call ‘biases.

Helpful Tips

Exemplar: If you are not sure on how to pronounce a name, ask the person!

• Do not assume you know how to say their name. Keep saying it until you get it right. Listen and write the name phonetically. Invite them to correct you.
• If the person states it ‘does not matter’ or call me ‘this’ instead. Apologise and explain that you want to learn how to pronounce their name.
• Ask what their name means- show an interest.
• Do not shorten someone’s name unless they invite you to do so
• Do not avoid using their name completely instead of learning how to pronounce their name. This makes them feel invisible.
• Help others get it right- correct them if they use a nickname for someone without their permission.

Ifrah Salih, Senior Lecturer, has shared an example of her own name.

Introduction Presentation which introduces cultural competence, unconscious bias and microaggressions. This activity is also incorporates the pre-sessional activity for students.  In respect of this student session please note that:

• It will take approx. 1 hour including the completion of the activity.
• You will need to share the Instructions for pre-sessional activity document with participants before the session.
• If you do not know the participant please allow 5 minutes for them to use the instructions and consider their answers. They may need to use the Internet for this.

Facilitator activity can be specifically used to help build intercultural respect and understanding or to help more generally develop self-identity, open respect and sharing. You'll need at least 2 people as this activity is performed in pairs. There is no maximum number.

Setting up an audio name badge supports engagement with your students and fellow colleagues and we recommend an audio name badge so you can hear how to pronounce names. You may ask students to do this so you can hear how to pronounce their names or you can add it to your email signature. 

Academic Advisor (AA) ice breaker activity can be used as an extended ice breaker during AA inductions, getting to know your students better or any other classroom activity. This activity will:

• Support the staff member in learning the student's name, pronunciation and support student belonging and the development of supportive relationships.
• Set the tone amongst other students in relation to expectations of interactions. 

N is also for Naming: an A-Z of Creative Teaching in HE. A blog post by Rachel Stone, Senior Lecturer, Academic Development & Inclusion (ADI) on why naming matters. 

Find out more:

External Guidance

Wonkhe/Pearson report: Building Belonging in Higher Education | Advance HE

Sense of belonging: how campuses can foster it| THE Campus Learn, Share, Connect

Advance HE: Say My Name - Dr Jane Bryan, a Reader in the Warwick Law School and Lead of the University of Warwick Community Values Education Programme (CVEP), highlights the importance of names in building inclusive institutions.

Diverse Educators: Say My Name - written by Raisa Shaikh, English Teacher, Head of Key Stage Five English, Diversity and Inclusion Co-Chair.

Times Higher Education: Say My Name - the importance of correct terms, titles and pronunciation - Jane Bryan.

YouTube Collection: My Name Is... - a mini documentary series of videos. 

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Student Equality and Inclusion can help support you with staff development on a range of teaching topics and how inclusion can be an integral part of your practice.