When I say Zoë Saldaña’s name out loud, I pronounce the accent on her last name. This, however, is probably the first time we’ve properly included the accent in her first name. We use it when we’re referring to Zoë Kravitz, but never for Zoë Saldaña because I didn’t know until today when I learned about it from her appearance on Jessie and Lennie Ware’s Table Manners podcast.
Before we get to that though, a word on how her comments are being clickbaited. I’ve seen some outlets saying she’s “slamming” America for misspelling her name, and in these times, you know the ulterior motive behind it. How triggered certain people get. She’s an Afro-Latina woman at a time when xenophobia is being normalised so, of course, they’re not taking her words in full context. Here then is what she said, which is way more than what’s being reported:
“I think that back in the day it was an entitlement of ‘well, this is America, this is English, that doesn’t exist, so we’re not gonna put [the accent] in’. Versus now – there’s this mindfulness of ‘how do you want to be called? What is your name?’ And that I truly appreciate. That gave me permission to make that choice, come into that awareness of ‘wait a minute, this is not my full name. My full name is Zoë Saldaña, and it’s no longer my job to help you pronounce my name. But it’s also my job not to take it personally if you can’t.” (Source)
When you hear or read what she said, as an entire idea, there’s nothing all that confrontational about it at all. She’s actually making a point about how, at least where her name is concerned, there has been progress. That people are asking others how they want to be called, how to properly spell their names. And this has led to a change in Zoë herself, where she’s felt more empowered to use the accents in her name when she might not have been before.
Many of us, especially those from racialised communities, understand this, especially as it relates to names, and our deeply personal relationships to them. When I was growing up, it was pretty standard for Chinese people to give themselves a name in English so that English speakers would be more comfortable. There’s a whole generation of young Chinese people these days who just go by their Chinese names, period. Last year I read an interview with a visual artist, Xiaoqian Zhu, and being the age that I am, I’m still fascinated by the fact that she’s not interested in making the “x” and the “q” and the “zh” in her name easier for those who don’t speak Mandarin.
This, then, is why we are now, going forward, using the umlaut in Zoë’s first name. Because she has “come into that awareness” to “make that choice”. But if there’s anyone out there who might forget, if we forget, she also won’t take it personally. So, to go back to the point about whether or not her comments were inflammatory? Not at all. There was no bite or fight to what she was saying.
There was, however, at least for me, new knowledge – which I’m grateful for.
Here’s Zoë last night at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival receiving the American Riviera Award. I f-cking LOOOOOOVE this ponytail!
