What can I do to distinguish myself? In addition, should I worry about discrimination for having a foreign last name?
Should I invent an alias or nickname for myself?
A few possible ideas that some people have used:
(1) Try to use a variant of your first name if it's a name that has variant spellings available, or a shorter or a longer form (Tim/Timothy, Kim/Kimberley, Will/William/Bill, Cate/Catherine/Kate/Katherine/Katy).
(2) Consider using your full middle name instead of just middle initial.
(3) Consider using your first initial and middle name instead of your first name and middle initial (like C. Wright Mills or J. Presper Eckert). This pattern is not uncommon in the English-speaking world although it is most used by people who simply don't like their first names that much.
(4) If your last name is a transliteration from a different writing system (like Cyrillic or hanzi), consider using a different transliteration method so that your last name is spelled slightly differently in English.
(5) Maybe contact the other researcher to describe your situation? I imagine most people would be amused and sympathetic in this situation.
(6) Maybe adopt a second middle name so that you have two middle initials instead of one. While this still might allow for some confusion, I think most publication venues would accept it.
On the bright side, there were two different researchers at the same time in the same department at Bell Labs named Stephen R. Bourne (one of them wrote the Bourne shell, /bin/sh) and apparently both of them had successful careers. :-)
And also the famous albeit fictitious J. Random Hacker! (Perhaps inspired by the inaugural FBI director J. Edgar Hoover.)
People search for names when they know the name already. Until your name is well known in your field, and your ideas are sufficiently differentiated from those of your namesakes, they will search for the areas in which you operate. If you distinguish yourself, you will be uniquely identifiable by your original thoughts and work.
If you are happy with your name, don't change it for fear of being mistaken. If your insights and achievements stand up on their own merit, you won't suffer on account of a shared name.
> People search for names when they know the name already. Until your name is well known in your field, and your ideas are sufficiently differentiated from those of your namesakes, they will search for the areas in which you operate. If you distinguish yourself, you will be uniquely identifiable by your original thoughts and work.
If I go by my real name, what would be the logistics of citing work? I'm worried about the situation where a reader may see my name cited and assume that the work was done by the other person, or see work done by the other person cited and assume that it was done by me. The issue may be exacerbated by tools such as Google Scholar.
My reply was pretty much to say don't overthink things and to be confident in your uniqueness, your viewpoints and your contributions to your field. However, I see your pragmatism.
(I cannot resist a flippant aside, though: Google Scholar will probably go the way of all Google products that were useful but showed insufficient profit. Don't make decisions that assume its continued existence.)
If you have a nickname that you like, there's no reason not to use it. If you have friends who might suggest one, then canvass their opinions. If you are into your birthright geography, append a place name as helping to define you. (Pyrrho of Elis, the founder of sceptic thought, is known now by name with place.) But beware of sounding pretentious.
Nowadays, some exalted people have resolved similar problems via the expedient of handles such as "realDonaldTrump". So be careful about your choices.
Whatever you decide to do, linger over any decision. Also, this being HN, you should get many better and more useful responses than this. But please don't fret. Maybe move this concern to a lower peg for now.
Edit to add: I've only now read properly the last bit of your original post: "In addition, should I worry about discrimination for having a foreign last name?"
Worry will do no good, and disguising the name or westernising/anglicising it will not prevent the prejudices inflicted by the sort of people who harbour them. Such people are looking for victims; and they do exist. But fuck them. They grow rarer and more endangered as the clock ticks.
Use a negative reaction to your name as a positive indicator that such people are not fit employers or associates or anything; they are to be ignored, and resisted/fought if they get in your face.
I really hope that some proper HN people weigh in on this.
[1] https://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-bias-hiring-0504-...
However, I am Chinese-American, and the study doesn't involve Chinese last names at all. I am worried about growing suspicion towards Chinese-Americans due to relations between the US and China (with the current Covid-related xenophobia being a manifestation of this deeper tension).
[1] https://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/minorities-who-whiten-job-resumes...
Or prefix with "Young" -- Young Bruce Lee.
