Hispanic name José loses popularity: experts call it assimilation, others call it dummyfication

Austin, Texas -- Recent data released by the Social Security Administration suggests that the name José has become just another boring name to avoid, according to experts.

Once the default name for just about every single Hispanic, including those with a second name (think professional wrestlers like José "Blue Demon", José "Mascara Sagrada", or actor José Chespirito), José had been in the list of top 50 most popular names every year except one since 1972 (the debate is still open in regards to that one year, 1986, when most Hispanics named their kids Joe instead of José as an appreciation for Ronald Reagan's amnesty program).

According to Gringo Professor Cleveland Kent Evans, who teaches psychology at Bellevue University in Nebraska, the rankings might suggest a measure of assimilation by Hispanics. Other experts, such as Prof. Carlton Mills of Clarkson University, were quick to refute Prof. Evans' claims, pointing to a more disturbing reason for the name's fall in popularity.

According to Prof. Mills, who studied the Social Security Administration's data more closely, the drop in interest is not due to Hispanics' lack of affection for the name. Instead, he argues that due to years of ineffective public education – especially in overcrowded and underfunded schools in California - Americans simply don't know how to spell anymore - Hispanics included. As a result, although Hispanics are still overwhelmingly choosing José as the name for their baby boys, they are incorrectly spelling it as Hosay, Ho-sey, Josay, Yosay, or Hosey, which skews the results. Once all the variations are combined, Prof. Mills found that José is still king among names.

Instead of calling it assimilation, Prof. Mills calls is dummyfication and points to the latest name, Hosey Hosey, given to a Hispanic baby in Austin Texas as proof of his findings. His claims have caused anger in the Hispanic community, where activists say the recent data shows Hispanics are simply getting more creative with their names. Prominent Hispanic leaders have gone further and denounced Prof. Mills as a racist bigot for claiming that Hispanics don't know how to spell. Others said the findings are inconsequential, since most babies born with the name José, regardless of spelling, will end up getting called Pepe, the default nickname for José, or Joe.

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