Post your research follow-up question to your name story here. (For example... my last name is Winter, which is a German name. I had always assumed this was because my folks were Polish Jews and at some earlier time they had a German landlord... i.e. that they were basically serfs owned by that landlord. But apparently it was very unusual for Jews to be serfs in their area; often they were small farmers or ran small businesses in town. So where does the name come from? I would want to follow up on who owned land in that part of the world, what the basic economic and legal structure was, etc.)
Annotated bibliographies due Sunday night via email... see instructions a couple of posts back
Read ch. 28 & 29 of the Course Guide, about research methods
The next kickoff will be Priya & Monique, about Chaturvedi's lecture on Monday.
You might also consider getting a head start on the Ruth Kluger book, as we will start reading it next week.
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For my name's further research question, I would look into William the Conqueror's relationship to my family, and why he gave my ancestor that plot of land that caused him to change his name to Stanfield. I want to examine the political relationships involved with my family.
ReplyDelete& Steve:
ReplyDeleteWhat influences parents that move to America to either keep a traditional cultural name or choose a new more American name for their children?
For my research question, I will look into the how different nationalities changed their names to help assimilate into the US.
ReplyDeleteHow did the conquered civilians get Spanish names? What was the process? How did Spainards feel about Indians having Spanish surnames? How did the Indians feel about having Spanish names?
ReplyDeleteThese are good... I think you're getting the point.
ReplyDeleteFor my name, I would like to know more about the popularity of my name amongst Japanese-Americans versus native Japanese. I would like to also know the origin of my name, which I believe has a more ancient origin, and whether my dad's reason (the motto of the all women's art academy) has to do with the origin or whether it was simply a coincidence.
ReplyDeleteI would want to learn more about where my last name came from because in this point in time I don't know very much about it. Also, I would like to know the history of how surnames can give away where you live, what your status is and if you have any political connections (like in Chaturvedi's story).
ReplyDeleteMy question would be very similar to Christine's.
ReplyDeleteHow did the Spanish colonization of the Philippines affect how native Pilipinos attained Spanish names?
The only other research Sarah Black and I came up with was just researching more about my "famous family members" who we really have no contact with. I wasn't entirely sure that that was even significant to this assignment
My research question was about my last name Shukla. So my ancestors helped form the Hindu Calendar. So my research question would be about when did this formulate and who else worked on the figuring out the other parts of the calendar.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I do know that we are Brahmins, who were the highest status in the orthodox Hindu hierarchy. So was it just a bunch of Brahmins who would watch the moon everyday and somehow notice the patterns?
I worked with Ivan and we helped each other develop our research questions. They were:
ReplyDeleteHow many women are keeping their last names after marriage, and how have these statistics changed throughout the years? What influenced this change? And how many men are willing to take on a woman's last name instead?
My follow up question would be whether the influence of a particular Kings reign was the real reason why so many Vietnamese people have the common last name Nguyen. Then I would look into the Kings background and how he ruled the people and lands.
ReplyDeleteThere are a lot of Filipino last names that either resemble Spanish or Japanese surnames. Are there any that are unique to the Philippine culture? or maybe What cultural aspects along with surnames, were brought to the Philippines from "invading" nations i.e. Spain, Japan?
ReplyDeleteMy follow up question is similar to (activity partner) Yen's. Though Dela Cruz is very common, I don't know much about it - what region of the Philippines did the name come from? any significance in status/political connections? Also why is it that most Filipinos use the mom's maiden name as the child's middle name? I also want to research more on Filipina national heroes. So far I know Marcela Agoncillo and Gabriela Silang (who my older sister is named after) - first Filipina to lead a revolt against the Spanish. Is there a Michaela my oldest sis is named after?
ReplyDeleteThe research question I would pose for my last name is why did Guru Gobind Singh give the Sikhs the last names of “Singh” for men and “Kaur” for women? If the ultimate goal of the religion is to unify all Sikhs into one entity, why is there a separation of gender roles between men and women. Since Sikh women are an emblem of royalty, what exactly does “royalty” mean? What circumstances (historical) led to the creation of these names, and from what primary language are these names derived from?
ReplyDeleteapparently the last name Vargas is common in the area of Puebla my dad's family comes from. I would like to find how it came to be so popular. but that wouldnt be my main research. my great-grandfather was a paid assassin during the political instanility of the mexican revolution; people paid him to kill their political rivals or their families. the families of those he killed found out who he was and so wanted revange by killing him and his family. because of this my grandparents moved a lot from town to town for a while. since the last name vargas is common, they didnt change that part of their name (to stay hidden from those that were looking for them) but they did change their first names. Until recently, my grandmother thought her name was Anastacia, before that she had gone around as Ana, before that Juana. because she had had to change her name, she forgot that her real name is actually Eustacia...anyways, i would research my greatgrandfather's story and link that to the political terror and corruption that was going on in mexico during the revolution.
ReplyDeleteSorry for being so late but here is my research question:
ReplyDeleteWhy is it the immigrants feel such a pull toward naturalizing into American society?
ditto to marko about being late :/
ReplyDeletebut since i was assigned 'textsfromlastnight.com'
lol
my question is:
How does modern technology affect our personal and impersonal relationships being that more people know about practically everything that we're doing at anytime of the day?