5 minutes
Naming Conventions Turn naming conventions into a more respectful, usable decision.
What you’ll be able to do Ask about household, identity, naming, and belonging without assuming that a community pattern describes a person. Compare the responses to this question and explain your choice: What keeps the learning useful instead of turning it into a stereotype? Document a next step for Naming Conventions: Use Naming Conventions as a hypothesis in one live plan; verify the relevant detail with the affected person or a named community partner, then record the change, owner, review date, and report-back. Naming Conventions Often given name plus father’s name, sometimes grandfather’s. No family surname as the database wants. Same trap as Somali, different grammar, different people. Do not invent a last name because the screen requires one. That invented name becomes a gate that follows them through MHCP, school, and child welfare.
How to file Oromo names are not Amharic names. Do not assume three Somali names. Honorifics Ato / Weizero in some Amharic rooms are not decoration.
Ask how to say it. Ask how to file it. Pronounce it. Women may or may not take a husband’s name in U.S. records. Mother and child may not match. That is not fraud until you have a reason.
Do not joke about names. Do not collect a clan or ethnic list as an icebreaker.
Put naming conventions to work What you can change You control whether naming conventions is treated as a question to explore or a label placed on someone.
What to watch for Ask how to say it and how to file it. Do not invent a last name because the screen requires one. That invented name becomes a gate.
Your next step Use this evidence as a hypothesis in your next plan, then confirm the relevant detail with the person or the community partner you named.
Practical cards Naming Conventions
Real example: Often given name plus father’s name, sometimes grandfather’s. No family surname as the database wants. Same trap as Somali, different grammar, different people. Do not invent a last name because the screen r…
Leader action: Ask how to say it and how to file it. Do not invent a last name because the screen requires one. That invented name becomes a gate.
I do not need a cultural performance from a professional. I need the process to make room for my name, my people, my questions, and the way I actually need to participate.
Composite public perspective — illustrative · Ethiopian Minnesota · Household, identity, and belonging Carry this forward Naming Conventions provide context to test, not a label to assign.
The person, household, Nation, or named community partner remains the authority on what fits.
Ask how to say it and how to file it. Do not invent a last name because the screen requires one. That invented name becomes a gate.
Completion is shown by a scenario decision, review of a practical artifact, and a saved one-minute commitment.
Use Naming Conventions as a hypothesis in one live plan; verify the relevant detail with the affected person or a named community partner, then record the change, owner, review date, and report-back.
Browse and download only. Course notes are not typed or saved on this page.
Reset this lesson
Previous lesson Next lesson Carry this into practice Use historical and community context to frame respectful questions about access and partnership; ask each person what fits their situation.
Return to the experience: What did you notice or try, whose perspective informed it, and what would you keep or adjust?
Participation and course completion in this program do not count toward DHS-required training credits unless management, a director, or DHS leadership expressly approves an exception.
