Sunny Hostin Says Changing Her Name Helped Her Career, But She Regrets It
Audiences know Sunny Hostin as an author, co-host of TV shows like The View and three-time Emmy Award winner. But her family knows her by a different name: Asunción.
It was always Asunción — nothing added, nothing shortened. Her family, which includes a mother who is Puerto Rican and Jewish and a father who is African American, wouldn't allow nicknames. "My family was very proud of the fact that I was Puerto Rican and African American — culture was important," Hostin tells Editor in Chief of Good Housekeeping and Editorial Director of the Hearst Lifestyle Group Jane Francisco, during Good Housekeeping's "We Are Family" 2020 parenting summit.
Hostin adds that her name was just one aspect of her multi-racial identity, which was something that set her apart growing up. "What I realize now is that my parents got married in 1968," she says. "The Loving decision came down in 1967, allowing interracial couples to get married for the first time. When I was growing up, no one looked like me. I struggled with identity. My name being Asunción made it a little more complicated, because no one could pronounce it."
In addition to all her school teachers growing up, there was one crucial person in her life that struggled with pronouncing Asunción: Court TV superstar Nancy Grace, an early mentor. During a break in recording one day, Grace told her: "No one is going to remember that. It's too difficult. I think you're talented, and you've got to change your name." Hostin told Grace that people who had a hard time with Asunción in college called her Sunny, and she was Sunny Hostin from then on.
"I don't know why in that moment I disregarded everything about myself, and everything my family instilled in me about being proud of my name, my heritage, my culture and my family," she says. "But all of a sudden, people remembered my name. I got called back over and over again."
Then again, there were trade-offs to the name change. "The disappointment I saw in my grandmother's face was pretty profound," she says.
"Were I to do it again, I would never have changed my name," she says. "Had I not changed my name, my identity would not be questioned as much. People question who I am all time. They say, 'Is she Black? Is she Latina?' The question, 'What are you?' is something that I get asked on The View often. I don't know that Soledad O'Brien gets that, because her first name is clearly a Latina name, but I sort of cut that off by changing it."
For now, though, there's no going back — something she has in common with one of her co-hosts on The View. "I spoke to Whoopi about it — her real name is Karen," she says. "I don't think she's going back to Karen."
The conversation was part of a day-long virtual event designed to help parents make sense of parenting at this moment in time. Hostin spoke to Francisco about her new book, I Am These Truths: A Memoir of Identity, Justice and Living Between Worlds, along with raising her son Gabriel, 18, and daughter Paloma, 14. The rest of the day included panel discussions, fireside chats and presentations, along the announcement of the winners of the Good Housekeeping Institute's first-ever Parenting Awards. To learn more about the events and programs, you can watch recordings of the event here.
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