This activity is great for introducing the concept of complex identities to individuals who may have never considered identity at all. Nevertheless, it can be equally insightful for those who are more advanced. Interestingly, our team recently adapted this activity to focus on professional titles rather than names. This adaptation allowed participants to explore whether their title aligned with what they do. This in turn connects to perspectives of worth, self-worth as well as how they are valued by others. At heart this is a word association activity. It's all about how the person sees and interprets their own identity.

I tried this with my class today and they had lovely discussions about the meanings of their names and how it relates to their heritage. It gave some of my international students the chance to teach their classmates their non-English names- and it was the first time that happened for many of them. 

Consider reading this article about the importance of having an attitude of curiosity when learning unfamiliar names. "Names That Are Unfamiliar to You Aren't "Hard," They're "Unpracticed": "It's time to change the conversation around 'difficult' names."  https://www.teenvogue.com/story/names-that-are-unfamiliar-to-you-arent-hard-theyre-unpracticed

This is a great way for students in a COIL experience to get to know each other with an added cultural layer to the introductions. You'll need to modify it for a virtual setting. I think it works well to put 1-2 students from each university in a group together to exchange the stories of their naming in asynchronous discussions. 

In using this, I suggest pointing out that different cultural communities and even different families assign different degrees of meaning to names and that it's ok if your name doesn't have particular meaning or a meaningful story -- that's a cultural difference that the activity helps to tease out. You might even note that an institution like marriage has often entailed renaming conventions that some people experience as negative and that the institution of slavery in the US had a renaming practice that was designed to do violence to people by cutting them off from their cultural heritage. I know at least one instructor who doesn't use this activity at all for this reason, and I've had at least one student say she felt funny because she felt like her name ought to mean something important when it didn't. In other words, this activity can simultaneously draw out positive sharing and learning while leaving some participants feeling diminished. I recommend it, but caution facilitators to consider the emotional labor it may ask of everyone in the room. 

I did this activity in a student-facing workshop. I think it is an interesting activity for a group of students/faculty/staff from diverse cultures/backgrounds, where the participants can learn about cultural differences and commonalities in naming people. It will work better if you can adjust it to different settings. For example, in a nursing classroom, have a discussion about making assumptions from patients' name; in a workshop, connect the activity to the purpose of the workshop (e.g., increasing cultural self-awareness).

This activity can be easily integrated in any world language via the use of an instructor created additional presentation in the target language. It was integrated in a first-semester language course at the beginning of the semester.

As per one of the examples in the original IC activity, different countries have different naming practices. The additional presentation in the target language will explain and discuss in simple target language the naming practices of the desired target culture. This activity can be inserted in any course that talks about cultural practices of the target country.

Duration of the original IC activity can be modified, shortened or lengthened as appropriate. At Purdue, in the Italian department, it has been designed to last one 50-minute class period. Duration of the additional PowerPoint is variable and can also be modified as appropriate. The additional powerpoint can also be integrated within the same lesson of the IC activity itself.