New Agent - Should I Americanize My Name?

[Sapir Simply]

Hi everyone!

So my question is pretty straightforward. I am a new Real Estate agent and I wonder if I should Americanize my name to gain that initial connection with clients? A lot of people have difficulties pronouncing and remembering my name, and I wonder if I would have more success if I use a more common name. I do go by Sophie sometimes, but it is not my legal name. I wanted to reach out to you guys and see if I can get any inside insights. I want to establish my name and brand in the real estate field and thought I should decide now whether I am going to go with my legal name or a nickname. Quick background on me, I am originally from Israel and moved to FL about 6 years ago. My name means Sapphire in Hebrew, I like it a lot but wouldn't mind having other people call me by a different name if it significantly improves my business. Thank you all!

[Que Tran]

@Sapir Simply

Keep it. It's a beautiful name. I had the same thought, but glad I kept my given name. Just put a phonetic spelling in parenthesis - that will help.

[Johnathon Sesi]

@Sapir Simply

I would 127% KEEP my given name! A name is very important and helps identify you as YOU. There are plenty of agents from various ethnic backgrounds that have no problems at all finding business in this industry. Your clients will hire you because of your personality WAY before they hire you because of your name.

I would also question taking advice from anyone who suggests you change your name. Those folks may have some self esteem issues, honestly.

Either way, whatever you choose to do, just know that building a strong relationship with your clients should be a top priority.

[Christina M.]

@Sapir Simply - people call me Christine but my name is Christina it's printed everywhere - even have to correct on legal documents. It never bothered although I will correct certain people if the keep repeating incorrectly and are annoying.

Do what moves you? If anyone has an issue with you based on your name you most likely do not want to do business with them. How many people will call you based on your name?

[Niyi Adewole]

Quote from @Sapir Simply:

Hi everyone!

So my question is pretty straightforward. I am a new Real Estate agent and I wonder if I should Americanize my name to gain that initial connection with clients? A lot of people have difficulties pronouncing and remembering my name, and I wonder if I would have more success if I use a more common name. I do go by Sophie sometimes, but it is not my legal name. I wanted to reach out to you guys and see if I can get any inside insights. I want to establish my name and brand in the real estate field and thought I should decide now whether I am going to go with my legal name or a nickname. Quick background on me, I am originally from Israel and moved to FL about 6 years ago. My name means Sapphire in Hebrew, I like it a lot but wouldn't mind having other people call me by a different name if it significantly improves my business. Thank you all!

 Absolutely not! Your name is unique and will allow you to stand out as you become established. Lean into your name, heritage, and excel. 

[Ron Brady]

@Sapir Simply

I share three thoughts amounting to my two cents: 

1. Researchers have done quite a bit of work on the impact of names in the professional world. While not precisely the same issue, call backs on submitted resumes may be a good proxy for what you describe as your wish "to gain that initial connection with clients."

In Minorities Who 'Whiten' Job Resumes Get More Interviews - HBS Working Knowledge from 2017, job applicants stripped their resumes of racial identifiers and found that the callback rates for black applicants increased to 25% from 10% and for Asian applicants the callback rates increased to 21% from the original 11%.

In Name Discrimination Study Finds Lakisha And Jamal Still Less Likely To Get Hired Than Emily And Greg | Here & Now (wbur.org) 2021, identical resumes with Black sounding names received call backs 10% fewer times

In the original 2003 groundbreaking research on this issue, Employers' Replies to Racial Names | NBER Black-sounding names had to send 15 resumes for a call back v non-black sounding names (e.g. Emily and Greg) needing only 10 resumes for a call back.

2. In another BP thread (Avoiding Bias. How do other investors do it? (biggerpockets.com) from 5 months ago, I shared how my wife and I approach a related question.

3. So cool to me to see you thinking about maximizing your value regardless of the baggage potential clients bring, when you say: "I like it a lot but wouldn't mind having other people call me by a different name if it significantly improves my business

Best wishes for your work, whatever direction you decide to take!

[Dwayne Poster]

Approach it from the perspective of being a business decision. Developing service skills and identifying your niche will be more important in the early part of your career.  As you build confidence and skill set, you'll market yourself as a standout. 

[Chris Mills]

@Sapir Simply as @Henry Lazerow mentioned, I think you could benefit a good deal from catering to your Hebrew culture. The ethnic biases in the US are real, but you can lean into it and benefit. Use your background, the simple/simplicity of doing transactions with you, even the sapphire blue color in your marketing. It'll endear you to a lot of people and make them cheerleaders for you. Those who it turns off, you don't need em. Neutralizing yourself is a bad idea, because no one has a reason to use you at that point. You want to stand out, not blend into the sea of agents in your market.

[Jay Hinrichs]

Quote from @Jim K.:

@Sapir Simply

I would definitely Americanize it. We supposedly live in a new, enlightened era, where people are not judged on their name, their color, their creed, being bald, fat, etc. This is completely untrue, in my experience. Scratch your typical Anglo-American type and watch the prejudices flow out in a torrent. If you're in any job that involves selling anything and ingratiating yourself to anyone, authenticity plays a distant fourth to likeability, likeability, likeability, in that order, and people like people who are like them, especially in Anglo-American culture.

 my Chinese/Asian  clients do this quite often if NOT 100%  

[Jay Hinrichs]

Quote from @Ron Brady:

@Sapir Simply

I share three thoughts amounting to my two cents: 

1. Researchers have done quite a bit of work on the impact of names in the professional world. While not precisely the same issue, call backs on submitted resumes may be a good proxy for what you describe as your wish "to gain that initial connection with clients."

In Minorities Who 'Whiten' Job Resumes Get More Interviews - HBS Working Knowledge from 2017, job applicants stripped their resumes of racial identifiers and found that the callback rates for black applicants increased to 25% from 10% and for Asian applicants the callback rates increased to 21% from the original 11%.

In Name Discrimination Study Finds Lakisha And Jamal Still Less Likely To Get Hired Than Emily And Greg | Here & Now (wbur.org) 2021, identical resumes with Black sounding names received call backs 10% fewer times

In the original 2003 groundbreaking research on this issue, Employers' Replies to Racial Names | NBER Black-sounding names had to send 15 resumes for a call back v non-black sounding names (e.g. Emily and Greg) needing only 10 resumes for a call back.

2. In another BP thread (Avoiding Bias. How do other investors do it? (biggerpockets.com) from 5 months ago, I shared how my wife and I approach a related question.

3. So cool to me to see you thinking about maximizing your value regardless of the baggage potential clients bring, when you say: "I like it a lot but wouldn't mind having other people call me by a different name if it significantly improves my business

Best wishes for your work, whatever direction you decide to take!

 just think about how many movie stars change their names ???

[Eric James]

Quote from @Jay Hinrichs:

Quote from @Jim K.:

@Sapir Simply

I would definitely Americanize it. We supposedly live in a new, enlightened era, where people are not judged on their name, their color, their creed, being bald, fat, etc. This is completely untrue, in my experience. Scratch your typical Anglo-American type and watch the prejudices flow out in a torrent. If you're in any job that involves selling anything and ingratiating yourself to anyone, authenticity plays a distant fourth to likeability, likeability, likeability, in that order, and people like people who are like them, especially in Anglo-American culture.

 my Chinese/Asian  clients do this quite often if NOT 100%  

 You mean, all their Chinese names aren't really Jenny??? lol

[Leroy Naschke]

@Sapir Simply I wouldn’t change anything. I would actually play on the difference in my marketing and make it stand out. People remember and are drawn to different things. “Simply Sold by Sap”. I make selling easy…list with me…..

[Bruce Woodruff]

Quote from @Leroy Naschke:

@Sapir Simply I wouldn’t change anything. I would actually play on the difference in my marketing and make it stand out. People remember and are drawn to different things. “Simply Sold by Sap”. I make selling easy…list with me…..

Simply Sold By Sap..... Brilliant!!!

[Prudence Meads]

Don't change your name! It actually helps you stand out, which would be better for your business. My name is Prudence and I hated it as a kid, but it helps people remember who I am because there are so few Prudence's around in the United States. I'm always the only Prudence that anyone knows :)  

[Eric Gerakos]

Quote from @Jim K.:

Quote from @Bruce Woodruff:

@Sapir Simply Well there you have it! Looks pretty lopsided in favor of retaining your REAL name....go out and take advantage of that incredible name!

No, you have a lot of lopsided support for this BS about authenticity from people with Anglo names and weak imaginations who didn't grow up here being told repeatedly to go back to where they came from.

Bruce, my first name is not really Jim. It's the Greek version of that. My last name is also Greek as hell. I can still remember in the first grade when the teacher specifically asked me to spell out my first name AS IT WAS WRITTEN ON MY BIRTH CERTIFICATE (my mom and dad always called me "Jim"), I was unsure of the spelling. My parents had never shown me my long-form American Born Abroad birth certificate. I'd only ever seen my birth name written in the Greek alphabet.

My first-grade teacher turned to the entire class, laughed spitefully, and said, "Imagine that. Not being able to spell your own name."

Bruce, I sincerely doubt you ever had an experience like that.

I don't need to be more REAL than I am. My people were writing philosophy when yours were worshipping the grass snake and drinking each other's blood out of skullcaps. I instead need to get along with "the bumpkins," to quote Paul Revere's father for why he changed his own name from Apollos Rivioire when he moved to the New World.

 My dads name was Demetrios but he changed it to Jim in the first grade when the other kids couldn’t pronounce it and made fun of him......

[Theresa Harris]

There may be people who don't use you because of your name, but there are also people who won't work with you because you are a woman.  Keep your name.  You can do a lot with it, especially your last name.  On your cards, add "Simply the best".

[Paul Marthaler]

The beauty of it is, it is your own business you're building so you decide what you like.  Contrary to what social media has one believe, most Americans are not racist nor prejudiced; Most are just getting on with their lives like anybody else.  If you are personable, a go getter and project success, you will draw  more customers to you than you know what to do with...regardless of your name. 

That said, many people have both a personal name and a professional name.   Many women will keep their maiden name they've used in business because that's how people know them rather than change it once married.... we are all an individual brand when we come to the business marketplace. 

Don't forget, millions of immigrants from Europe in the 20th century to "Americanized" names because their European surnames were either long, hard to pronounce and even harder to spell. They just truncated them and life went on.

[Richard E.]

This is a great question.

So, my first name is Richard, but the name I go by, which is my middle name, is not in any way american. This is what i go by with all my friends and family. This is what I grew up with. My family has never called me richard in their whole life.

I have always gone by richard professionally and continue to do so. it wasn't super intentional; richard was the name i went by for awhile (college, grad school) but i didn't love it. I can't 100% explain why i went by one name vs the other, except i can say that i intentionally decided to go by my middle name in my personal life at one point and made a total switch. I kept richard professionally. I literally have 2 names. People who see them overlap think its odd. 

But honestly, its not a big deal, no one cares that much, and it doesn't matter. I am a guy who has 2 names.

I started my business in 2010 and had no business really succeeding at it. I had great success.

Would it have been the same if used my preferred name?  No clue. I am in LA so maybe nobody here cares much. Or maybe they did- i will never know. But one thing I do know is that, nobody ever looked at the name RIchard and thought "huh I dunno about that guy named Richard"- would it have been the same if my name sounded like it was off the terrorist most wanted list? Like i siad, we'll never know.  In LA, maybe not. Alot of people figure out my middle name because everyone looks me up anyway, and the ones who are middle easter/arab always comment on it as a positive. so really, who knows.

But when people call me Richard, as so many do, I do not feel weird about it in any way. I do not feel inauthentic, or like I did something to placate a racist society. I feel fine about it, and it worked for me. it is my name that everyone knows me as, in my professional life.

Like real estate, we are confronted with a set of problems and circumstances, and optimal handling of them creates optimal value. You could probably be successful either way; but there may be some people that don't love the foreign name, even if they don't realize it themselves, they may gravitate elsewhere. Optimizing your situation may entail handling this potential problem.

I also think Sapir is cool. I think Sophie is cool too.  (Sapphire sounds made up and not serious, i would not advise going with that one)

I guess my point is that, going by a different name does not necessarily have to mean your going to feel inauthentic or its going to be weird. So many posters here are preaching authenticity- I don't really see going by another name as an act of inauthenticity. 

(Note, this Might be easy for me to say, since the name I go by is actually one of my given names, it just isn't the one all my friends/loved ones call me, and isn't my preferred one)

[Anthony L Amos Jr]

Absolutely Not!!!!!!!!!!

Teach them how to pronounce your name. A nickname is ok but do not "Americanize" your name.

Make content teaching people how to pronounce your name and what it means.

When adding value to people lives, they will remember your name.

Good Luck!!!!

[Trevor Davis]

Quote from @Adam Greene:

I know you are a new agent but this is an important lesson and worth learning from the start. Be your best authentic self.  The clients who do work with you will love you. Your rep will grow and your brand will have value even if nobody ever pronounces your name correctly. Also don’t work with *** holes who won’t work with you because of your name.  Unless your name is *** hole then maybe you should consider changing it. 

I agree she shouldn't change her name,  but I don't think it is all about people being ***holes. I think a lot of people just don't want to mispronounce someone's name. They could be nudged to call "Kelly", "Jessica", or "Carlos" instead because they know how to pronounce the name of the person they are calling.  

Sapir is a nice, simple name that I'm sure is easy to pronounce once one knows how. Maybe she can add a phonetic spelling, or a "rhymes with" or "sounds like".  It might have the added benefit of making her name more memorable too.

[Tiffani T.]

Keep it.  Corp world loves "diversity and inclusion".  This gives you a better leverage with a unique non-Americanized first name and making it more noticeable to attract buyers in higher end market aka more $$$$

[Reggie Desir]

@Sapir Simply don’t change anything. You’re name is a great way to brand yourself. With a first name like Sapir you don’t even need a last name. You’ll be like the Madonna or Cher of real estate. If you provide great service your cool and unique name will speak volumes within the industry.

[Bruce Woodruff]

Quote from @Anthony L Amos Jr:

Absolutely Not!!!!!!!!!!

Teach them how to pronounce your name. A nickname is ok but do not "Americanize" your name.

Make content teaching people how to pronounce your name and what it means.

When adding value to people lives, they will remember your name.

Good Luck!!!!

 Yessir! Good advice! And you have a memorable name with nice alliteration as well....

[Cheryl Mack]

Sapir,

I can see a promotion tagline like "Simply call Sapir" in your future.  When people hesitate on your first name, either model how it is pronounced (say it out loud) or say it means Sapphire.  Most will get it and may find it memorable.  Which is, after all, the point.  Present yourself with dignity and demonstrate your expertise; that is far more important.

[Connor Ferguson]

Own that last name @Sapir Simply. “Simply Sold”, “Simply Secured Realty”?!