Naming Errors: Globalization and Its Mispronunciations

Starting from a visit with his father to the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C., this essay unpacks after whom Jesse van Amelsvoort was named and how his name changes when crossing borders. The past of the author’s name has been influenced by bureaucratic mistakes, while its present is marked by a very specific understanding of what names are internationally intelligible. Thus, the essay reflects on naming practices in times of globalization and growing multilingualism and transnationalism.