Assigning a Name to a Child: Gender Differences in Two Overlapping Generations
EMMA OTTA Department of Experimental Psychology Institute of Psychology University of
São Paulo, Brasil
ABSTRACT.In Brazil, male (n = 80) and female (n = 80) students and acquaintances of two
overlapping generations (young and middle-aged) were interviewed, to investigate the process
and effect of assigning first names to people. Questions focused on who was the namer, the
guidelines used, and the affective values of given names. Significant age and gender differences
were found. In the older age group, the mothers more frequently chose the names of their
daughters than of their sons, whereas the fathers more frequently chose the names of their sons
than of their daughters. In the younger age group, no such gender difference was found. In the
older age group, the aesthetic criterion was more frequently mentioned by women than by men;
in the younger age group, this gender difference was not found. The younger men reported the
aesthetic criterion significantly more often than the older men, whereas no significant difference
was found between younger and older women. The data showed a decrease in namesaking for
women but not for men from the 1950s to the 1970s. This trend is consistent with the findings of
previous research, showing a persistent tradition of naming boys after their fathers. On the
whole, people liked their names, regardless of age and gender.
"My name is Alice, but -- !"
"It's a stupid name enough!" Humpty-Dumpty replied
impatiently. "What does it mean?"
"Must a name mean something?" Alice asked doubtfully.
"Of course it must," Humpty-Dumpty said with a short laugh:
"My name means the shape I am -- and a good handsome shape it
is, too. With a name like yours, you might be any shape, almost."
( Lewis Carroll, 1872, p. 186)
ASSIGNING A NAME TO A CHILD is loaded with psychological meaning. According to
Rabinovich, Santos, Oliveira, and Siqueira ( 1991), Rabinovich ( 1992), and Rabinovich, HulleCoser, Travaglini, Esteves, and Santos ( 1994), a whole life's script is written when a child is
named. As Humpty-Dumpty told Alice in Lewis Carroll ( 1872) Through the Looking Glass,
certain names imply that their owners have specific characteristics ( Marcus, 1976). The ancient
Egyptians believed that the name was the source of their power and the controller of their destiny
( Garnot, 1948).
There are many unusual names. Most eccentric Brazilian names result from the common practice
of joining part of the father's name with part of the mother's name ( Martins, 1984; Obata, 1986).
Sometimes the result of this kind of combination is unusual, as in, for example, Erlice ( Er nesto
and A lice), Edigênio ( Edi te and Eu gênio), Gusmira ( Gus tavo and Al mira), and Luriam ( Lu
la and Mi riam). Tospericargerja was named not after his parents but after the football team that
won the 1970 World Cup: Tos tão, Pe lé, Ri velino, Carlos Alberto, Gér son, and Ja irzinho.
Sometimes the result may be rude. For instance, a married couple who were fans of the actresses
Ava Gardner and Gina Lollobrigida called their daughter Ava Gina (it sounds like vagina). Other
eccentric names result from inversions; Onaireves is the mirror image of Severiano, and Ocirema
is the mirror image of Américo.
In some countries the civil code prohibits the parents from giving names that are shocking or do
not clearly indicate the child's sex. Brazilian legislation tries to limit extravagant names. Law No.
6015, Article 55, promulgated in 1973, states that officials of the civil registry should not register
names that are likely to make their bearers the objects of ridicule. If the parents do not agree, the
case should be presented to a judge for consideration. Article 56 states that upon attaining full
legal age, a person who has an odd, rude, or obscene name can change it.
There are stereotypes about names. One thousand sixty American names were rated on three
dimensions: active-passive, like-dislike, and masculinefeminine. Names such as Michael, James,
and Wendy were rated as active, liked, and gender appropriate, whereas names such as Alfreda,
Percival, and Isadore were rated as passive, disliked, and gender inappropriate ; ( Buchanan &
Bruning, 1971). Marcus ( 1976) found that Johns were seen as trustworthy and kind, Robins as
young, Tonys as sociable, Agneses as old, Agneses and Matildas as unattractive, and Anns as
nonaggressive.
Names are associated with expectations, which may affect perceptions of and behavior toward
the bearers of the names. On the other hand, such stereotypes may be related to the bearers' selfperceptions and personality characteris tics. According to Garwood, Cox, Kaplan, Wasserman,
and Sulzer ( 1980), the perceiver apparently holds implicit personality theories about certain
categories of given names, which result in the perceiver applying different expectations to the
behaviors of individuals according to the name categories they fall into.
When physical attractiveness was held constant, judgments of such attractiveness were
influenced by first names. University students from New Orleans voted more often for attractive
girls who bore desirable names than they voted for attractive girls with undesirable names (
Garwood et al., 1980).
Children with unfavorable names may be negatively affected by the stereotype associated with
that name. Essays written by fifth-grade students with desirable names received higher grades
from a group of teachers than those written by students with undesirable names ( Harari &
McDavid, 1973).
Children who dislike their names may become shy and withdrawn ( Eagleson , 1946). McDavid
and Harari ( 1966) found that popularity among adolescents was significantly related to the
desirability ratings of their names. Savage and Wells ( 1948) found that the academic
performance of Harvard College students with peculiar names was poor compared with other
students and that these students also had problems with personal adjustment.
Analyzing 1,682 cases in a psychiatric children's clinic of New Jersey, Ellis and Beechley (
1954) found a greater association with moderate or severe emotional disturbance among children
with peculiar names than among those with common names. In general the association with
disturbance was greater for boys than for girls.
Hartman, Nicolay, and Hurley ( 1968), studying inpatients in the psychiatric ward of a
Pennsylvania hospital, and Anderson and Schmitt ( 1990), studying court psychiatric clinic cases
in Illinois, found that among psychiatric cases, boys and men with peculiar first names were
more severely disturbed than their counterparts with common names. Uniqueness may be seen
more pejoratively as an oddity in men. A boy who answers to a unique or feminine name may
have experiences and feelings that affect personality and are quite unknown to those named John
or William. The pressure to conform may be weaker for girls.
My purpose in the present study was to investigate the naming process, a subject that has
received scant attention. In Brazil, I interviewed men and women of two overlapping
generations, investigating who named them, what determined the choice of the names, and the
affective values of given names. I also included some questions about nicknames, a subset of
personal names comparatively less studied, which may provide another useful tool for revealing
sex role stereotypes ( Morgan, O'Neill, & Harré, 1979; Phillips, 1990).
Gender-linked naming trends were expected. For instance, I expected that boys would be more
frequently named after their fathers than girls would be after their mothers. In a study by Joubert
( 1990), male American college students reported greater inclination than their female colleagues
to give their first name to a child.
I also wanted to investigate age-linked naming trends. Different naming procedures have been
followed during different historical periods ( Smith, 1977; Johnson, McAndrew, & Harris, 1991).
In the Middle Ages, living siblings could bear identical names, being distinguished only by birthorder modifiers. In the Early Modern Period, living siblings no longer bore identical first names.
However, if a child died, especially when the name was the same of that of a parent, his or her
name would frequently be given to the next child of the appropriate sex.
In the Modern Period, there were no siblings with identical first names, even in the case of death.
A larger societal change, in which families became progressively more child centered, could
explain these changes in naming patterns. In the 1600s, in Massachusetts, five out of eight first
sons and three out of four first daughters were named after their parents. By the late 1800s, those
proportions had dropped to two out of five and one out of six, respectively. I wanted to
investigate possible changes in naming trends, by comparing two overlapping generations.
Method
Participants
College undergraduates in Sao Paulo, Brazil (young group, n = 80) and their acquaintances
(middle-aged group, n = 80) voluntarily consented to participate in a study on naming.
Participants in the young group ranged in age from 18 to 24 years, with a mean of 21.8 years.
Participants in the middle-aged group ranged in age from 40 to 47 years, with a mean of 44.2
years. In each group, half of the participants were men and half were women. All participants
were Caucasian and from the middle class. Data were collected in 1994.
Procedure
Data were collected through individual semistructured interviews. Personal information
requested included name, age, birthplace, education level, and occupation. Afterward,
participants were asked to tell the story of their names: (a) Who chose the name? (b) Why was
the name chosen? They were also asked to rate their names on a 7-point scale ranging from
dislike very much (1), to like very much (7). Finally, participants were asked to tell their
nicknames and to rate them on the same 7-point scale.
Results
Namer
The frequency with which each one of the parents, both of them together, or other persons were
reported to be responsible for the choice of the individual's name are reported in Table 1. Choice
by the parents was more frequent than by other persons, and choice by one of the parents alone
was more frequent than the choice by both of them together.Few of the participants reported that
they didn't know who chose their name; most of those who did were men. A significant sex
difference was found in the older age group, with men reporting lack of knowledge more
frequently than women, χ 2(1, N equals; 80) = 5.000, p 〈 .05. This result can possibly be
attributed to the greater interest that women may take in their given names compared with men (
Busse & Helfrich, 1975).In the older age group, mothers more frequently chose the names of
their daughters (45.0%) than of their sons (12.5%), χ 2(1, N = 80) = 10.313, p 〈 .05. On the
other hand, fathers tended to more frequently choose the names of their sons (42.5%) than of
their daughters (22.5%). χ 2(1, N = 80) = 3.647, p 〈 0.10. In the younger age group, this
difference between the sexes disappeared.
Naming Criteria
The various naming criteria are reported in Table 2. They included the following: 1. Aesthetics.
The individual's name was chosen for aesthetic reasons, because the namer considered it
beautiful or fashionable or thought that it sounded good.
2. Honor. The individual was named after a parent, a relative, or a friend. In the younger age
group, a woman was named after Iara Iavelberg, a psychology student murdered for political
reasons during a Brazilian military dictatorship.
3. Religion. The individual was named after a saint of the Christian church ( Teresa, Rita) or
after someone in the Bible ( Gabriel, Daniel). A curious
TABLE 1
Person Who Named the Child, by Age Group and Sex
Young
Middle-aged
Females
Males
Females
Males
Namer
n
%
n
%
n
%
n
%
Mother
18
45.0
17
42.5
18
45.0
5
12.5
Father
9
22.5
11
27.5
9
22.5
17
42.5
Both parents
10
25.0
6
15.0
9
22.5
8
20.0
Other person
2
5.0
1
2.5
3
7.5
3
7.5
Unknown
1
2.5
5
12.5
1
2.5
7
17.5
case was Tania Maria. Her middle name was an imposition of the priest who refused to christen
her only Tania, arguing that it was a Russian name.
4. TV/cinema. The individual was named after a famous actor in a soap opera or movie. For
instance, one individual reported that he had been named C láudio after the actor Cláudio Marzo.
5. Rule. The individual's name was chosen according to some rule. The parents decided that the
names of all their children should have the same initials ( Geraldine, Guilherme, and Gabriel) or
the same ending ( Ary, Arary, Cecy, Darcy, Iacy, Jay, and Juracy). The latter set of names
followed a second rule as well: They were all Brazilian Indian names.
6. Other.
7. Lack of knowledge of history of name.
As can be seen in Table 2, aesthetics and honor were the naming criteria most frequently
reported by all of the participants, although there were differences in the importance assigned to
them as a function of sex and age.
The aesthetic criterion was more frequently mentioned by women (19.5%) than by men (4.9%)
in the older age group, χ 2(1, N = 80) = 4.234, p 〈 .05; such a difference between the sexes was
not found in the younger group. The younger men (24.0%) reported the aesthetic criterion
significantly more often than the older men (4.9%), χ 2(1, N = 80) = 6.180, p 〈 .05, whereas no
significant difference was found between the younger and older women.
The honor criterion was more frequently mentioned by men than by women in the younger age
group (43.5% vs. 21.0%), χ 2(1, N = 80) equals; 8.326, p 〈 .05; I did not find this difference
between the sexes in the older group. The younger women
TABLE 2
Naming Criteria, by Age Group and Sex
Young
Middle-aged
Females
Males
Females
Males
Criterion
n
%
n
%
n
%
n
%
Aesthetic
14
32.5
11
24.0
9
19.5
2
4.9
relatives
7
16.3
13
28.3
12
26.0
15
36.6
nonrelatives
2
4.7
7
15.2
5
10.9
4
9.8
Religion
2
4.7
1
2.2
7
15.2
2
4.9
TV/cinema
3
7.0
2
4.3
2
4.4
0
0.0
Rule
4
9.3
4
8.7
2
4.4
5
12.1
Other
5
11.6
1
2.2
3
6.5
2
4.9
Unknown
6
14.0
7
15.2
6
13.0
11
26.6
To honor:
tended to be named after people less often than the older women (36.9% vs. 21.0%), χ 2(1, N =
80) = 2.760, p 〈 .10, whereas the younger and older men were equally likely to be a namesake
(43.5% vs. 46.4%).
Names Versus Nicknames
On the whole, analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed that the interviewees expressed stronger
liking for their given names than for their nicknames, F(1, 124)= 13.518, p 〈 .01. The mean
ratings were 5.8 and 5.1, respectively. The ANOVA also yielded a significant interaction for
Name Type × Rater Sex, F(1, 124) = 6.270, p 〈 .05, qualifying the main effect. The men
preferred their given names (M = 6.1) to their nicknames (M = 4.8), whereas the women did not
indicate any preference (M = 5.6 vs. M = 5.3).
Discussion
Naming a child after a relative or after someone else known to the parent is a way of extending
one's self and lineage into the future ( Johnson et al., 1991; Smith, 1977). There are apparent sex
differences in the importance of this naming strategy. The present data showed a decrease from
the 1950s to the 1970s in using namesakes for women but not for men. In addition, Rabinovich
et al. ( 1991) found that boys were more likely to be a namesake than girls among Brazilian
neonates born in 1988-1989. Joubert ( 1990) found that male American university students
reported a greater inclination than women to give their personal name to a child. These results
were in accord with the findings of previous research ( Furstenberg & Talvitie, 1980; Rossi,
1965), showing a persistent trend toward naming boys after their fathers.
Being a namesake may have a cost for the individuality of the person. Zweigenhaft, Hayes, and
Haagen ( 1980) demonstrated that having "Jr." attached to the name may have a detrimental
effect on a man, because Junior suggests that its bearer is smaller, younger, and weaker than the
person after whom he was named.
Another problem is the burden that is placed on a person. Some individuals in our sample were
named after recently deceased persons whose deaths had occurred under especially tragic
circumstances. For instance, in the younger age group, a woman was named after Iara Iavelberg,
a psychology student who was murdered during a Brazilian military dictatorship. It is notable
that the young woman was also studying psychology. Fodor ( 1956) suggested that names
influence vocational choice. According to Feldman ( 1959), names influence personality
development because the children learn to identify themselves with the names that provide
continuously present cues closely tied to the stimulus values of the names held by parents.
Nevertheless, being a namesake may also positively affect a person. Zweigenhaft et al. ( 1980)
reported that unlike those with Junior appendages, those with "II" after their names were not
affected negatively by being namesakes. The Roman numeral may suggest that its bearer is part
of a tradition, without the negative connotations of Junior. Johnson et al. ( 1991) suggested that
using namesakes is an important strategy to fit the child into the kinship network: It publicly
advertises the strength of the kinship, making the child more likeable to potential caregivers.
An understanding of naming may provide insight into the parent-child relationship and into sex
role stereotypes ( Rabinovich et al., 1991, 1994). The present finding that men were more likely
to be namesakes than women in both the 1950s and the 1970s may reflect parents' expectations
that men will continue the family's tradition. In the 1950s, women were more frequently named
according to aesthetic criteria than were men, which suggests that attractiveness and emotion
were considered qualities suitable to women. It is noteworthy that in the 1970s men were as
frequently named according to aesthetic criteria as were women. Tradition continued to be an
important criterion for the naming of a male child, but aesthetic criteria became more prominent.
We can infer from the results that the naming criteria for men and women became less different
in the 1970s than they were in the 1950s, with correspondent changes in gender roles.
In the older age group, the mothers more frequently chose the names of their daughters than of
their sons and the fathers more frequently chose the names of their sons than of their daughters.
In the younger age group, this difference disappeared. These results indicate a major change
between the two overlapping generations in the women's role in the naming process, with a more
active role in the younger generation than in the older one. This may explain the change
observed in the naming criteria.
In addition to the greater prominence of aesthetic criteria in the choice of male names, in
comparing the older generation with the younger one I found that honor criteria were less
frequently applied over time. Rabinovich et al. ( 1991, 1994) distinguished between a "clean"
type of naming (aesthetic criteria generally fall into this category) and a strong, emotionally
loaded type (honor criteria generally fall into this category). Following such reasoning, one can
suggest that there is a trend to substitute clean types of naming for strong, emotionally loaded
ones.
As in the Strunk ( 1958), Boshier ( 1968), and Strümpfer ( 1978) studies, conducted in North
America, New Zealand, and South Africa, respectively, most of our Brazilian interviewees,
independent of sex and age, liked their names. The name represents an important aspect of the
self, an anchor of selfhood ( Alport, 1937, 1961). According to Holt ( 1939), most people feel
that their names are a part of them, not fortuitous but built in, like an arm or a finger.
Finally, in contrast with most participants' expression of general satisfaction regarding their
names, the men tended to have negative feelings about their nicknames. An examination of the
types of nicknames mentioned by the interviewees suggests a possible reason for the men's
dissatisfaction: Their nicknames were
more frequently derogatory (Rat, Horse, Banana, German, Japanese, Miner 1 Nerd) than the
women's, which tended to be part of their personal names (e.g., Beth for Elizabeth) or based on
physical attributes or personality traits (a freckled, agitated young woman was called Litle Rusty
Popcorn).
REFERENCES
Alport G. W. ( 1937). Personality. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
Alport G. W. ( 1961). Pattern and growth in personality. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
Anderson T., & Schmitt P. R. ( 1990). Unique first names in male and female psychiatric
inpatients. The Journal of Social Psychology, 130, 835-837.
Boshier R. ( 1968). Attitudes toward self and one's proper names. Journal of Individual
Psychology, 24, 63-66.
Buchanan B. A., & Bruning J. L. ( 1971). Connotative meanings of first names and nicknames
on three dimensions. The Journal of Social Psychology, 85, 143-144.
Busse T. V., & Helfrich J. ( 1975). Changes in first name popularity across grades. The Journal
of Social Psychology, 89, 281-283.
Carroll L. ( 1872/ 1985). Through the looking glass. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Eagelson O. W. ( 1946). Student's reactions to their given-names. The Journal of Social
Psychology, 23, 187-195.
Ellis A., & Beechley R. M. ( 1954). Emotional disturbance in children with peculiar given
names. The Journal of Genetic Psychology, 85, 337-339.
Feldman H. ( 1959). The problems of personal names as a universal element in culture.
American Imago, 16, 237-250.
Fodor N. ( 1956). Nomen est omen. Samiska, 10, 9-45. (From Psychological Abstracts, 31,
Abstract No. 7427)
Furstenberg F. F., Jr., & Talvitie K. G. ( 1980). Children's names and paternal claims: Bonds
between unmarried fathers and their children. Journal of Family Issues, 1, 31-57.
Garnot J. S. F. ( 1948). Les fonctions, les pouvoir, et la nature du nom propre dans l'ancienne
Egipte d'aprés les textes des pyramides. Journal of Psychological Normality and Pathology, 41,
463-472.
Garwood S. G., Cox L., Kaplan V., Wasserman N., & Sulzer J. L. ( 1980). Beauty is only
"name" deep: The effect of first-name on ratings of physical attraction. Journal of Applied Social
Psychology, 10, 431-435.
Harari H., & McDavid J. W. ( 1973). Name stereotypes and teacher's expectations. Journal of
Educational Psychology, 65, 222-225.
Hartman A. A., Nicolay R. C., & Hurley J. ( 1968). Unique personal names as a social
adjustment factor. The Journal of Social Psychology, 75, 107-110.
Holt R. R. ( 1939). Studies in the psychology of names. Unpublished thesis, Princeton
University.
Johnson J. L., McAndrew F. T., & Harris P. B. ( 1991). Sociobiology and the naming of adopted
and natural children. Ethology and Sociobiology, 12, 365-375.
Joubert C. E. ( 1990). Individuals' ratings of their given names on several dimensions. The
Journal of Social Psychology, 131, 301-302.
Marcus M. G. ( 1976, October). The power of a name. Psychology Today, 75-76, 108.
Martins F. ( 1984). O nome próprio [The personal name ]. Brasilia: Editora da Universidade de
Brasilia.
McDavid J. W., & Harari H. ( 1966). Stereotyping of names and popularity in gradeschool
children. Child Development, 37, 453-460.
Morgan J., O'Neill C., & Harré R. ( 1979). Nicknames: Their origins and social consequences.
London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Obata R. ( 1986). O livro dos nomes [The book of names ]. São Paulo: Círculo do Livro.
Phillips B. S. ( 1990). Nicknames and sex role stereotypes. Sex Roles, 23, 281-289.
Rabinovich E. P., Santos N. G. dos, Oliveira D. C. de, & Siqueira A. A. F. de ( 1991). Atribuição
de nomes próprios em neonatos. [Naming of newborn infants ]. Boletim de Psicologia, 41,
23-30.
Rabinovich E. P. ( 1992). Um dois três de Oliveira quatro: Que nome você vai dar a seu filho?
[One two three Oliveira four: Which name have you chosen for your child? ] Diálogo Médico,
18, 20-22.
Rabinovich E. P., Hulle-Coser A. C. P., Travaglini D., Esteves E., & Santos N. G. dos ( 1994). A
comparative study of naming children from two socioeconomic groups. The Journal of Social
Psychology, 134, 553-555.
Rossi A. ( 1965). Naming children in middle class families. American Sociological Review, 30,
499-513.
Savage B. M., & Wells F. L. ( 1948). A note on singularity in given names. The Journal of Social
Psychology, 27, 271-272.
Smith D. S. ( 1977). Child-naming patterns and family structure change: Hingham,
Massachusetts, 1640- 1880. The Newberry Papers in Family and Community History. (Paper No
76)
Strümpfer D. J. W. ( 1978). Relationship between attitudes towards one's name and self esteem.
Psychological Reports, 43, 699-702.
Strunk O. ( 1958). Attitudes toward one's name and one's self. Journal of Individual Psychology,
14, 64-67.
Zweigenhaft R. L., Hayes K. N., & Haagen C. H. ( 1980). The psychological impact of names.
The Journal of Social Psychology, 110, 203-210.
Received January 17, 1996
____________________
1 A Miner is a native of the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais.
___________________
This research was conducted with the support of Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento
Científico e Tecnológico. I thank Alessandra Casarin Marcondes, Andrea Pujol Lazarini, and
Yara Teixeira Balestrerofor their assistance in data collection. Thanks are also due to Vera Silvia
Raad Bussab and to anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments.
Address correspondence to Emma Otta, Departamento de Psicologia Experimental, Instituto de
Psicologia, Universidade de São Paulo, Av. Prof. Mello Moraes, 1721, CEP 05508-900, São
Paulo, Brasil; e-mail: [email protected].