00:00I will say that with white people I definitely make it a point to make sure
00:04they know how to pronounce my name just because like it's not that difficult you
00:09know. When you're African there's so many positive stereotypes that come with
00:14your name versus like when you're black American. I don't use the rest of that
00:18because I do feel like it automatically says you're female and you're black. My
00:23name is Kalia Isabella Underwood. My full name is Nana Ama Sapoma Adjumai but my
00:28French just call me Nana. My name is Larissa Nicole Papillon. I am Creole and my
00:33last name means butterfly in French. Kalia means bridge between the sun and the
00:38moon in Swahili. Ama, the second part of my name, means Saturday. If you were if
00:43you're Ghanaian and you were born on a Saturday they call you Ama. I was named
00:48after my grandmother. I've always gone by like Rissa. I feel like it's a more
00:54racially ambiguous name. My father hasn't even gone to the point where he's like
00:58don't go by Larissa at all. Go by Nicole. You'll sound very white. You'll
01:02sound very like an upstanding citizen. If you go by Nicole Papillon, no one can
01:05place you. When I was younger it was tough because people didn't know how to
01:09pronounce it or people would make fun of it. I had a co-worker who called me
01:14Kalia for almost six months. When I was down to Ama people be like where are you from?
01:18Ew. Like so I was always judged and I hated that. I really really hated that.
01:23Kale, Kahaley, Kayla, Kalayla, Kahula. Although my name is Nanama all my friends really just call me
01:33Nana and people still can't get that right. So they call me Nana. I don't get why.
01:38I'm like it's Nana. It's pretty simple. And then they all once they find out it's
01:42Nana. They're like oh na na na na. Thanks. You ruined my whole name. Appreciate it.
01:46Kiki, do you love me? When people pronounce my name wrong, it's actually understandable.
01:53I just nicely correct them like hey it's Nana Ama. I just think that it's common
01:58courtesy to pronounce a name the way it's supposed to be pronounced. My name has
02:03been pretty beneficial in the workplace. People are like oh she's ethnic. You know
02:07like we want her here. We want an African woman here. Versus like if my name was
02:11something else that a lot of people might target or correlate with being
02:15ghetto they might not even want to review my application. Honestly they don't even
02:19know if I'm a male or female sometimes. When I was looking for like fast food jobs
02:22or retail jobs I just had the fear that you know my application would kind of be
02:27put to the side because my name is so ethnic. So I think that I'm fortunate because
02:32you know I'm in a creative industry. My dad up until this day has a grudge against
02:38why I only go by Nana. Like on all of my bylines he's like that's not your name.
02:44I'm like it is my name. So we still have this like constant back and forth between
02:49like I need to go by Nana Ama or I need to go by Nana. And now that I'm growing
02:53up I
02:53kind of see his side to the story. I kind of do think that it's respectful of my
02:59culture and of my family to go by my whole first name.
03:01I think my name is definitely black sounding and that's why I love it. Like
03:06it's part of my culture. I love my name now. I love that I am Nana Ama Sapo Ma Ashmore.
03:13I love that I love that I love that I love that I love that I love that I love
03:13that I love that I love that I love that I love that I love that I love that I
03:13love that I love that I love that I love that I love that I love that I love that
03:13I love that I love that I love that I love that I love that I love that I love
03:13that I love that I love that I love that I love that I love that I love that I
03:13love that I love that I love that I love that I love that I love that I love that
03:14I love that I love that I love that I love that I love that I love that I love
03:14that I love that I love that I love that I love that I love that I love that I
03:14love that I love that I love that I love that I love that I love that I love that
03:14I love that I love that I love that I love that I love that I love that I love
03:14that I love that I love that I love that I love that I love that I love that I
03:14love
